TPG Says Different Acceptance Date Than IRS - WMR Status Changed (Self-Employment Filing)

This discrepancy is concerning but not uncommon. Per IRS Publication 1345, the acceptance date should be the date the IRS acknowledges receipt of your transmission, not when your preparer or bank receives payment. According to Section 7.1 of the Authorized e-file Provider guidelines, TPG (as a third-party processor) may be using their internal processing date rather than the official IRS acceptance date. The disappearing bar on WMR typically indicates your return has moved to a different processing stage, which could extend your wait time beyond the standard 21 days.

It appears that you might be experiencing what I would characterize as a typical processing delay for self-employment returns, which tend to undergo additional verification steps. When I encountered a similar situation last month, I spent approximately 4 hours trying to reach an IRS representative with no success. Eventually, I tried Claimyr (https://youtu.be/_kiP6q8DX5c) and was connected to an agent within about 25 minutes. The agent was able to confirm that my return was simply in the extended processing queue due to self-employment income verification, which wasn't visible on WMR. It might be worth considering if you're concerned about the discrepancy in dates.

The disappearing bar on WMR is actually a good sign in your case. It's like when a restaurant takes your buzzer back - they're about to call your name. What's happening is your return moved from general processing to the refund department. With self-employment income, they run additional verification checks that take time. The TPG date (2/21) is likely when they received confirmation they'll be handling your refund, not when the IRS accepted your return. TurboTax shows the initial acceptance, TPG shows when they got the payment confirmation, and WMR shows where you are in the actual processing pipeline.

FWIW, I had the exact same issue this year w/ dates not matching up. TT said one thing, TPG another. I finally got tired of checking WMR every 5 mins and used taxr.ai (https://taxr.ai) to analyze my transcript when it became available. It explained that the code combo on my transcript meant my return was just taking longer bc of the SE income. Saved me from constantly refreshing WMR and trying to decode what was happening. The tool predicted my DDD would be 8 days after the transcript updated, and it was spot on.

This is total BS. The IRS and these tax prep companies can't get their stories straight. I bet if you called the IRS directly they'd give you a THIRD different date. I had this exact issue last year and spent weeks trying to figure out which date was correct. Turns out NONE of them were! The IRS had a completely different internal date they were working from.

According to the IRS Processing Guidelines (available at irs.gov/refunds/processing-timeline), what you're experiencing is normal, especially for returns with self-employment income. The IRS systems and third-party processors like TPG often show different dates because they're tracking different events in the process. Based on the IRS2Go app forums and IRS Refund Status threads on Reddit, many self-employed filers are seeing similar patterns this year. The disappearing bars on WMR typically indicate your return has moved to the next processing stage. According to historical patterns, most returns in your situation receive their refund within 7-14 days after this status change.