The Internal Revenue Service is alerting taxpayers that refunds for the 2026 filing season could face significant holds if direct deposit information is omitted or entered incorrectly. The agency, which began accepting returns for tax year 2025 on January 26, anticipates processing approximately 164 million individual filings before the April 15 deadline.
Strict Verification Process
If routing or account numbers are missing from a refund request, the IRS will initiate contact exclusively via postal mail to obtain corrected details. The agency explicitly states that staff will not accept bank information by phone, text, or in-person to prevent fraud. Taxpayers receiving a CP53E notice will have a 30-day window to update their information through their online IRS account; missing this deadline results in a paper check being mailed after approximately six weeks.
Processing Timelines and Tracking
While the majority of electronically filed returns receive refunds within 21 days, the IRS notes that certain tax credits and necessary corrections can push payments into March or later. Taxpayers can monitor their refund status using the "Where's My Refund?" tool, which updates once daily and typically shows a return as received within 24 hours of e-filing. Paper filers should allow about four weeks for initial processing.
Broader Push Toward Electronic Payments
This emphasis on direct deposit aligns with a March 2025 executive order directing the Treasury Department to phase out paper checks for most federal payments by September 30, 2025. The order cited that paper checks are 16 times more likely than electronic transfers to be lost, altered, stolen, or returned undeliverable, with the paper system costing over $657 million in fiscal 2024.
IRS leadership, including CEO Frank J. Bisignano, continues to advocate for e-filing combined with direct deposit, emphasizing these methods "speed the processing" of both returns and refunds. Tax preparation firms like Intuit's TurboTax also highlight that while the IRS typically issues refunds within 21 days of accepting an e-filed return, additional bank processing time may apply.
