The Department of Revenue, Illinois, is releasing the refund for tax year 2024 within four weeks for electronic refunds, and for paper checks, it is taking up to eight. Taxpayers who have filed their refund around or on deadline can expect to get the refund by mid-May 2025 and mid June 2025 for e-filing and on-paper return, respectively.
If the required time for e-filing or paper return has been passed and you haven’t received your refund, firstly you should check that refund status to find out whether everything is okay with your tax filing or not. You should know the timeline for getting the refund mentioned above is for direct deposit, for a paper check it may take two weeks more.
Illinois State Refund Status 2025
| Filing Start Date | January 27, 2025 |
| Filing Deadline | April 15, 2025 |
| E-File Refund (Deposit) | Mid May 2025 |
| E-File Refund (Check) | Late May 2025 |
| Paper Refund (Deposit) | Mid June 2025 |
| Paper Refund (Check) | Late June 2025 |
| Check Delay (Remote) | +5 to 7 days |
| Refund Status Tool | “Where’s My Refund?” on the IL DoR site |
| Phone Support | 1-800-732-8866 (Mon–Fri, 8AM–5PM CST) |
| Refund Stages | Received, Processing, Approved, Issued, Completed |
How To Check?
The Illinois’ DoR provides a web-based tool, ‘Where’s My Refund?,’ to check the refund status, whether you have e-filed or on-paper you may track the state tax return status by going through the listed.
- Go to the official website of the Department of Revenue, Illinois at https://tax.illinois.gov/.
- Jump to the section of Featured Programs, and hit the ‘Where’s My Refund?’ option to go to the next page.
- Lastly, you have to enter your Social Security Number, ID and Requested Refund Amount and then hit the Submit button.
Alternatively, one may check the state tax refund by dialling 1-800-732-8866, which is available from Monday through Friday, 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM CST.
Refund Calendar
Illinois’s DoR releases the state tax refund via direct deposit and paper check; both of these payout methods are available for e-filing and paper check. As we already have discussed the timeline above, now you may check the expected date to get the refund based on e-filing or paper-file date.
| Filing Date | Filing Method | Refund Date |
| 15 April 2025 | Electronically | Direct Deposit: Mid May 2025 |
| Paper Check: Late May 2025 | ||
| Paper | Direct Deposit: Mid June 2025 | |
| Paper Check: Late June 2025 |
If there will be any error on the Illinois State Tax Return 2025, the IDoR may take more time to process your refund and release it. Make sure to count +5 to + 7 days for remote areas in case of payment gateway as paper check.
Refund Stages
By going through the step-by-step instructions given above, you will successfully have checked that your state refund is Received, Processing, Approved, Issued or Completed. Let’s understand the meaning of each one:
- Received: The IDoR has received your state tax refund, they are yet to review it and process it.
- Processing: The officials are still reviewing and processing your refund, which usually takes 3 to 5 days.
- Approved: Your tax refund is accepted by the IDoR, you will surely see a date on which the direct deposit or paper check is going to be sent.
- Issued: The IDoR has sent the Illinois State Tax Return 2025 via the opted payment gateway, which will receive in due course.
- Completed: You have received your direct deposit or paper check of the Illinois State Tax Refund 2025.
After the release of direct deposit, it takes hardly 72 hours to reflect in the bank account; taxpayers who have opted the payment method as paper check may have to wait upto two weeks to receive in the mailbox, for the remote areas it takes more 5 to 7 days.