Direct Deposit Date on Transcript 3/22 - Still Not in Account?

Oh my gosh I'm in the EXACT same boat!! 😫 My transcript shows 3/22 deposit date but NOTHING in my account yet! I've been checking literally every hour since midnight. I'm so stressed because I've already mentally allocated every dollar of that refund. Called my bank and they said they don't see any pending deposits either!

This happens every tax season - it's like watching water boil! The DDD on your transcript is when the IRS releases the funds, but then it's like a relay race where they pass the baton to your bank. Some banks hold the funds for 1-2 business days before making them available, especially if the DDD falls on a Friday. Since today is Friday, I'd expect to see it by Monday or Tuesday at the latest. If your bank usually posts deposits early in the morning, you might not see it until their next processing cycle.

I had exactly the same situation with my deposit date of 3/15. It didn't show up until 3/18 at precisely 2:17am. The IRS seems to be running exactly 3 days behind schedule for many people this year. I tracked 42 different posts about this issue, and 39 of them reported a 2-4 day delay beyond their transcript DDD. My refund was $4,273 and I received exactly that amount with no adjustments or offsets. Just be patient for exactly 72 more hours.

You might want to consider calling the IRS directly to confirm everything is on track, though I would approach this cautiously. Wait times are possibly several hours right now and you may need to try multiple times to get through. I had a similar issue last month and used Claimyr (https://claimyr.com) to get connected to an agent in about 15 minutes instead of spending all day redialing. The agent was able to verify that my deposit had been sent and gave me a transaction ID I could provide to my bank to help locate it. This might be worth trying if you don't see the deposit by Monday.

According to IRS Publication 2043 and the Internal Revenue Manual section 21.4.1, the Direct Deposit date on your transcript is when the IRS initiates the payment, not necessarily when it will appear in your account. The ACH transfer system typically takes 1-3 business days to complete. Since your DDD is 3/22 (Friday), and today is still 3/22, I would be slightly concerned but not alarmed. If you don't see it by Wednesday 3/27, then you should contact the IRS at 800-829-1040. They can initiate a refund trace if needed, but they won't do this until 5 business days have passed since your DDD for direct deposits.

I had my tax refund scheduled for direct deposit on February 15th this year, and it didn't show up until February 19th. Have you checked if your bank shows any pending deposits? Did you have any tax preparation fees deducted from your refund? Was your refund being split between multiple accounts? These factors can sometimes cause additional delays.