Your refund
Paper refund checks are ending
If your return has no bank account on it, the IRS no longer mails a check by default. It holds the refund and sends a letter. This affects anyone who has always waited for the check in the mail, and almost nobody knew.
Under an executive order signed in March 2025, the federal government began phasing out paper checks on September 30, 2025. Last filing season was the first in which a paper refund check was no longer the default, and the change was barely announced. It applies to tax refunds, and it applies to money going the other way as well. For most people the fix takes one line on the return. For the people who never set up a bank account or an IRS online account because they never needed one, it is a real change.
If your return has no bank account on it
The IRS holds your refund and mails a notice, CP53E. You have 30 days to add direct deposit information through your IRS Online Account. If you do nothing, a paper check goes out about six weeks after the notice date. Either way, the refund is late, and the delay lands on the people who could least afford it.
The notice itself comes by mail, on paper, from the IRS. It does not come by text or email, and it never asks for a bank login. A text that says your refund is “on hold” and offers a link to fix it is a scam, and a common one. If a CP53E arrives and you are not sure it is real, your IRS Online Account shows every notice the IRS has actually sent you.
Worked example: the same $2,400 refund, three ways
| E-filed, direct deposit | E-filed, no bank account on the return | Paper return, no bank account | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Return filed | February 10 | February 10 | February 10 |
| What happens | Refund deposited | CP53E mailed; 30 days to respond | Return keyed by hand, then CP53E |
| If you respond online in a week | — | Deposit about a week later | Deposit, after the return is processed |
| If you do nothing | — | Check mailed about six weeks after the notice | Check mailed about six weeks after the notice |
| Refund in hand, roughly | Early March | Mid-March to late April | May to June |
Timing is typical, not promised; returns claiming the earned income credit or additional child tax credit are held until mid-February regardless. Same refund, same return, up to three months’ difference.
If you don’t have a bank account
The IRS allows limited exceptions: no bank account, a hardship, or certain other circumstances. You can choose one in your IRS Online Account, or by phone, and a paper check usually follows in one to two weeks. Many prepaid debit cards and some payment apps can take a direct deposit; ask the provider for a routing and account number, and confirm the account is in your name. A joint refund generally needs an account in both names, so a couple should check whose name is on the account before putting it on the return.
Get the numbers right
A wrong routing or account number means a rejected deposit, and there is no second notice. The refund is mailed as a check, weeks later, and if the wrong number happens to belong to a real account, getting the money back is between you and that bank. Bring a voided check or a bank statement that shows both numbers, and if you changed banks during the year, say so before the return is filed. Once a return is accepted, the bank information on it cannot be changed.
Paying the IRS
The same order covers payments. Paper checks to the IRS are still accepted for now, but electronic payment is the expected route: IRS Direct Pay from your bank account (free), your IRS Online Account, EFTPS for businesses, or a card, which carries a processor’s fee of about 2%. The same applies to estimated payments. Colorado’s Revenue Online works the same way for state balances and estimates.
Set up your IRS Online Account
It is where you answer a CP53E, see your payments and notices, pull transcripts, and check whether a letter that arrived is real. Set it up yourself at IRS.gov/account; it takes a photo ID and about fifteen minutes. Be wary of anyone offering to “help” you do it: the person who holds your login holds your refund, your transcripts and your address history. The upside of all this is real: an e-filed return with direct deposit usually sees a refund within 21 days, and paper checks are far more likely to be lost, stolen or altered than a deposit is.
Behind the scenes
Software carries last year’s bank account forward, and that is the problem. We re-confirm the routing and account numbers every year against a current check or statement, not from memory, because the accounts that go wrong are the ones that were closed in July and never mentioned. The routing number is also checked against the bank’s own list; a number that passes the software’s math check can still belong to a branch that no longer takes deposits, or to the bank’s wire department rather than its ACH department.
The Colorado side
Colorado still mails refund checks when no account is on the return, but the same direct-deposit line serves both returns, so fixing the federal side fixes the state side. One Colorado wrinkle: the Department of Revenue holds some refunds for identity verification and sends a letter asking you to confirm through Revenue Online before releasing the money. That letter is real and comes by mail; a text asking you to “verify your Colorado refund” is not.
What to bring your preparer
- A voided check, or a bank statement showing the routing and account numbers, for the account you want the refund in
- If you changed banks or closed an account during the year: say so, and bring the new account’s numbers
- For a joint refund: confirmation that the account is in both names, or a note that it is not
- If you have no bank account: whether you want to use a prepaid card that accepts deposits, or request the paper-check exception
- Any CP53E or other IRS notice received in the last year
- Whether you have an IRS Online Account, so a hold can be answered quickly if one comes
Questions people ask
I’ve always gotten a check. Can I just keep getting one?
Only by claiming an exception, through your online account or by phone, and it adds weeks. If you have any bank account at all, putting it on the return is faster and safer.
Can my refund go into my child’s account, or my daughter’s?
The account should be in your name. Banks can reject a deposit where the name does not match, and if they accept it, the money is legally your daughter’s.
I put in the wrong account number and the return was already accepted. What now?
If the number does not match a real account, the bank rejects the deposit and the IRS mails a check in a few weeks. If it matches someone else’s account, contact the bank at once; the IRS cannot pull the money back. Nothing on the return can be changed after acceptance.
Can the refund be split between two accounts?
Yes, up to three, on Form 8888, including directly into an IRA. It is an easy way to make the IRA contribution for last year by April 15 out of the refund itself.
I got a text saying my refund is on hold. Is it real?
No. The IRS does not text about refunds. Delete it, and if you want to check, log into your IRS Online Account or use Where’s My Refund on IRS.gov.