Written by Damon C. Williams

If it's been longer than 21 days since you've filed 2025 income tax returns, you probably have one question: where is my refund?

And you likely need that money, as personal finance resource LendingTreefound roughly 49% of filers rely on their tax refund for everything from paying off debt to supporting family members.

Here's how you can track the status of your 2025 income tax refund, and how much you can expect to get back.

We're roughly a month into 2026 tax season and if you haven't yet filed 2025 income tax returns, you may be deciding whether to hire a professional tax preparer or self-file for free.

More than 12 million people used a professional tax preparer to file their income tax returns so far, according to IRS filing statistics for the week ending Friday, Feb. 13. A little more than 19 million tax returns were submitted by self-filers.