You may have noticed that it’s harder to get a Refund Anticipation Loan (RAL) these days. Between actions by the IRS and some bank regulations, the RAL money is pretty hard to come by. You will still get your income tax refund, it just won’t be as fast without the RAL. On the bright side, RAL charges are really expensive and the money you save could be worth the wait.
You’ve probably heard advertisements on TV that say you can get your refund in as little as 8 days. It’s true, but you need to know the whole truth, it could be 8 to 14 days. Also, if you do one of those Refund Anticipation Checks (RACs), that’s where the fees you pay to a preparer are taken out of your refund, then that could add another 1 to 3 days onto the timeline. I believe in “truth in advertising.” I’m hearing a whole lot of “Get your money in as little as 8 days” and “without even paying anything up front” but I’m not hearing about the extra time added for doing that, or the extra cost. You need to know the whole story.
One thing you should know about is timing. Thursday is the important day. The IRS issues checks on Thursdays. The cutoff for determining what checks get written is the Thursday before check writing day. That means, if you have your taxes prepared and submitted on Wednesday, and you’re doing a DIRECT DEPOSIT into your personal bank account, then you’ll receive your IRS refund in 8 days; one week from the Thursday cut-off. If you have your taxes prepared on a Friday, then you’ll get your refund almost two weeks later instead.
Remember, the cycle runs on Thursdays; your refund will be computed on the first Thursday and the check will be cut on the second Thursday.
So, the best day of the week — in order to get the fastest refund – is Wednesday. Now, if you file your taxes on Thursday morning, you might be okay. If the filing is received by the IRS by noon, you’ve made the cut-off and you’ll receive your refund the next week. The catch here is you might go into an office, file your return and have it sent before noon, but there are things called “batch systems” that may prevent your return from actually being received before noon by the IRS. If you file on Wednesday, all those batches will be processed before noon on Thursday and you’ll receive your refund the Thursday after that.
I always recommend filing on Wednesday over Thursday morning just to avoid the risk of being held up in the batching. (Most preparers have no control over that.) Of course, the important thing is to just file when you’re ready. Don’t file before you have all of your documents. Remember, your employer isn’t required to have the W2’s completed until January 31st. If you happen to get your paperwork early, consider yourself lucky.
Just because the IRS issues checks and does its DIRECT DEPOSITs on Thursday doesn’t mean you will receive your money on Thursday. If you are doing a RAC, where you had your fees withheld from your refund, then your IRS refund is going to go to a bank that works with your tax preparer and then the bank will direct deposit the money into your account. There’s a time lag there that can be for as long as three days. You need to keep those things in mind when you’re looking for your money.
Keep your money in mind also as you listen to those TV commercials. “You can have your refund with no money due from you when you file.” That’s all fine and dandy, but how much money are they keeping? There will be a fee for the tax preparation, plus a fee to the bank for bank processing, plus a fee for completing the paperwork required by the bank. Make sure you know how much you’re spending for that convenience. Depending upon your situation, it may be well worth it to pay the charges, it may not be. Ask questions, know what you’re buying so that you make an informed decision.
The fastest way to get your income tax refund, without using a loan program, is to e-file your taxes on a Wednesday and have your refund DIRECT DEPOSITED by the IRS into your personal bank account.