How Long Do You Have To Wait Before Checking?

If you filed your tax return electronically, you should be able to access status of your refund within 48 to 72 hours. Since return is coming into database electronically, it should be assimilated into system fairly quickly. If you do not file your return electronically, you are going to have to wait three weeks or more before status of your return can be checked. As you can imagine, IRS is receiving an enormous amount of paper tax returns and it takes time to organize and enter returns into system.

How Long Should It Take To Receive Your Tax Refund?

If you are expecting a refund, time to issue refund will depend upon how you filed your return. If you filed a paper return via regular mail, you refund should be issued in six to eight weeks from date it was received by IRS. Alternatively, if you filed your return electronically, you should expect to receive your refund in three to four weeks. If you elected to have your refund directly deposited in your banking account, you should take one week off of above estimates.

So, what tax deductions have I created for my 2004 filing period? Initially, I am going to deduct a percentage of points off of my latest refinance. The deduction will amount to total amount of points paid divided by total months of loan. This will not be a big deduction, but every little bit helps.

In addition to this amount, however, I will also deduct full $3,000 in points that I paid on my January 2004 refinance! I am able to claim this deduction because I "accelerated" deductibility of points by paying of January mortgage with August refinance.

By refinancing twice, I get a lower interest rate and a healthy tax deduction. Ah, value of owning a home.