PA UC Refund Delays - Anyone received their PA state tax refund yet?

Filed mine on March 1st and got my refund direct deposited last week. If you had unemployment income reported on your return, that might be causing the delay. The UC department has to verify your income with the tax department, and we all know how slow PA UC moves with anything. Did you file electronically or paper? Paper takes waaaaay longer.

mine took 11 weeks last year! and i didnt even have unemployment on it. PA is just super slow with everything tax related. as long as your where's my refund status says processing and not something else i wouldnt worry yet

For anyone struggling to reach PA unemployment or PA Department of Revenue by phone, I recently discovered a service called Claimyr that helped me get through to an actual human at UC. It basically automates the call process and then calls you back when it reaches a representative. Their website is claimyr.com and they have a video demo that explains how it works: https://youtu.be/CEPETxZdo9E?si=WL1ZzVZWG3KiHrg2 I was stuck in a similar situation waiting for both my tax refund and UC benefits, and getting through to a representative helped me resolve my UC issues while they were able to tell me my tax refund was flagged for a simple verification that was holding things up.

I FILED IN JANUARY AND JUST GOT MINE YESTERDAY!!!! The whole system is a JOKE. My sister filed in APRIL and got hers before me. Makes absolutely ZERO sense. They just pick names out of a hat I swear. Don't even get me started on how they handle UC claims - been waiting 6 months on an "appeal" that no one can tell me anything about.

To directly answer your question about whether the unemployment income is causing the delay: possibly. Returns with unemployment compensation sometimes get flagged for additional review, especially if there's any discrepancy between what you reported and what the UC office reported to the tax department. One thing to know is that PA has a separate phone number for tax refund status questions: 1-888-PATAXES. They're actually somewhat easier to reach than the UC office, but still prepare for a wait. Have your SSN, filing status, and refund amount ready when you call. Meanwhile, for your UC claim, you might want to check your dashboard for any open issues or items requiring additional documentation. These often get stuck without clear notification to claimants.

has anyone else noticed that if u file paper returns they take like twice as long than doing it online??? my mom always does paper and shes still waiting but i did turbotax and got mine already

Just a quick update that might help others - I just spoke with my tax preparer who said PA is experiencing significant delays this year, especially for returns filed in February. Apparently their system was updated in March and returns filed before that are taking longer to process. So it might not be related to your UC situation at all, just bad timing with when you filed.

I'm in a similar boat - filed electronically on February 12th and still showing "processing" for my PA state refund. I also had unemployment income on my return from a brief period last year. It's reassuring to hear that the system update in March might be causing delays for February filers rather than something specific to our UC situations. I've been hesitant to call since I know how backed up everything is, but maybe I'll try that 1-888-PATAXES number if I don't see movement in the next week or two. The waiting is definitely stressful when you're already dealing with UC claim issues on top of it!