California Where’s My Refund

California taxpayers can track the status of their tax refunds through the state’s Where’s My Refund tool. This tool is pretty much the same as the federal refund tracker but exclusively for California tax refunds.

If you’re expecting a refund from the State of California, use the tool to see the status of your state income tax refund.

Click here to open California Where’s My Refund.

To track the status of your tax refund, use your exact refund amount, numbers in your mailing address (for example, 9999 Main Street), ZIP code, and Social Security Number. If you don’t have an SSN, use your Individual Taxpayer Identification Number instead.

On California Where’s My Refund, you will see notifications when your:

• return received
• refund approved
• refund sent

Generally, you will receive the return received notification in about 3 days if you filed your California income tax return electronically. This can take up to 2 weeks for mailed returns.

After your return received by the State of California Franchise Tax Board, you it may take about 2 weeks for your refund to be approved. This roughly takes the same amount of time to process your tax return. Again, this is for electronically filed tax returns. Once the refund is sent, you can expect to have it within a week or so.

In total, it shouldn’t take longer than 4 weeks for electronically filed tax returns. On the other hand, for mailed returns, expect to wait for at least 8 weeks or two months.

If you’re lucky to get it a month, consider yourself lucky as the California Franchise Tax Board website points out that the taxpayers who mailed their tax returns can expect to wait an average of 3 months. Waiting for your tax refund for longer than you should? Give them a call by dialing 1-800-852-5711.