All About Access

You’ve filed your taxes. You want your refund. But the thought of wading through complex and potentially inaccessible government web sites to check on its status is just too daunting. You’ve come to the right place.

The links below will take you directly to the form you need to fill out—which is half the access battle. The other half is filling out the form. The good news is that the forms are short. The bad news is that some forms are more accessible than others. Here are some general tips:

1. Most, but not all, of the forms have three edit boxes for your social security number. Not all of these are labeled in such a way that your screen reader will be able to identify them. So if you find three consecutive edit boxes, the first of which asks for your SSN, type in the first three digits in the first edit box, the second two in the second edit box, and the last four in the third edit box. Also, when filling out your SSN you will often find that you are automatically advanced to the next edit box. For instance, if you type 123 in the first of the three edit boxes, you may find that as soon as you type the “3,” your screen reader says “edit”. If so, don’t press Tab; just keep typing numbers.

2. Most of the forms expect you to enter your refund amount as part of verification. On most of the forms this is the last item. So if you find a single unlabeled edit box—or an edit box that refers to dollar amounts—at the bottom, that’s probably what is expected. Of course, if you want to verify that, you can get out of your screen reader’s mode for filling out forms and up arrow.

3. I quickly went through the forms using JAWS. If I found something peculiar/worth noting, I noted it after the link.

With no further ado, find your money!

• [Federal](https://sa.www4.irs.gov/irfof/lang/en/irfofgetstatus.jsp “IRS refund status page”)
• [Alabama](https://www.alabamainteractive.org/cgi-bin/ador/income_tax_lookup/search.cgi “Alabama refund status page”)
• [California](https://webapp.ftb.ca.gov/ecom_lib/privacy.asp?Submit=Browser+Ok%2C+Check+Refund&redirectURL=https%3A%2F%2Fwebapp.ftb.ca.gov%2Frefund%2Findex.asp “California refund status page”)
• [Colorado](https://www.myincometax.state.co.us/status/login.asp “Colorado refund status page”)—Note: You might want to read the instructions which come after the form. (Now there’s a good place for instructions!) You do not need to provide all of the info requested in the form.
• [Delaware](https://dorweb.revenue.state.de.us/scripts/refinq/refinq.dll “Deleware refund status page”)
• [Idaho](https://www.accessidaho.org/secure/istc/refund/status.html “Idaho refund status page”)—Note: When JAWS announces the third control, a checkbox, it includes the words “Electronic Filing”. This seems to be due to poor page coding. The text label that precedes the checkbox says “Amended Filing?”
• [Illinois](https://www.revenue.state.il.us/app/refund/servlet/RefundStatus “Illinois refund status page”)
• [Indiana](https://secure.in.gov/apps/dor/tax/refund/refundStatusQuery.jsp “Indiana refund status page”)
• [Iowa](https://eservices.idrf.state.ia.us/taxrefund/LogoffUser?view=logonUser “Iowa refund status page”)
• [Kansas](https://www.kdor.org/refundstatus/default.asp “Kansas refund status page”)
• [Louisiana](https://webtax2.rev.louisiana.gov/status/refund/ “Louisiana refund status page”)
• [Maine](https://revenue.mrs.state.me.us/refstat/1_REGISTRATION.ASP “Maine refund status page”)
• [Maryland](https://interactive.marylandtaxes.com/RefundStatus/default.asp “Maryland refund status page”)
• [Massachusetts](https://wf.dor.state.ma.us/mrs/Welcome.asp “Massachusetts refund status page”)
• [Michigan](https://treas-secure.treas.state.mi.us/eservice_enu/start.swe?SWECmd=Start “Michigan refund status page”)—Notes: This form is poorly coded. The first edit box expects your entire SSN with no dashes. The second edit box expects your last name. Also, this page displays correctly in Internet Explorer, but not FireFox.
• [Minnesota](https://www.mndor.state.mn.us/wm/servlets/TaxReturnsServlet “Minnesota refund status page”)
• [Mississippi](http://www.mstc.state.ms.us/servlet/IncomeInquiry “Mississippi refund status page”)
• [Missouri](https://dors.mo.gov/tax/taxinq/welcome.jsp “Missouri refund status page”)
• [Nebraska](http://www.revenue.state.ne.us/refund/refundstat.html “Nebraska refund status page”)—Note: This form is poorly coded. The first edit box expects your entire SSN with no dashes. The second edit box expects your refund amount to the nearest dollar.
• [New York](https://www7.nystax.gov/PRIS/prisHome “New York refund status page”)
• [North Carolina](https://dorprod.ncdor.state.nc.us/wheresmyrefund/selection.jsp “North Carolina refund status page”)
• [Ohio](https://www.tax.state.oh.us/webz/wmr/wheres_my_refund.html “Ohio refund status page”)—Note: The final checkbox may not be spoken correctly. It is preceded by the text “If this is for a 2004 amended Tax Return (IT-1040X or SD-100X) check here.”
• [Oregon](https://www.oregonrefund.com/refund.cfm “Oregon refund status page”)—Note: In between the fields for your SSN and the refund amount, there is a group of radio buttons where you must indicate your filing status. Tab seemed to skip right over them. You might need to get out of your screen reader’s forms processing mode to access that section.
• [Pennsylvania](https://www.pa.direct.info.state.pa.us/refundstatus/index.jsp “Pennsylvania refund status page”)
• [Rhode Island](https://www.ri.gov/cgi-bin/taxation/refund/status.cgi “Rhode Island refund status page”)
• [South Carolina](https://www2.sctax.org/refund/ “South Carolina refund status page”)
• [Virginia](https://www.individual.tax.virginia.gov/RefundStatus.jhtml “Virginia refund status page”)
• [West Virginia](https://www.state.wv.us/secure/tax/ “West Virginia refund status page”)
• [Wisconsin](https://prd2p.it.state.wi.us/dor/faqs/inquiry.html “Wisconsin refund status page”)

If your state wasn’t listed above….

A number of states do not yet have online refund status checking—or have it, but didn’t put it where I could find it—but allow you to check your status by phone.

• Arizona: 602-255-3381 or 800-352-4090
• Arkansas: 501-682-0200 or 800-438-1992
• Connecticut: 860-297-5962 or 800-382-9463
• Georgia: 404-656-6286 or 800-338-2389
• Kentucky: 502-564-1600
• Montana: 406-444-9840
• New Jersey: 609-826-4400 or 800-323-4400
• New Mexico: 505-827-0827
• North Dakota: 701-328-2770
• Oklahoma: 405-521-3160 or 800 522-8165, extension 13160
• Utah: 801-297-2200 or 800-662-4335
• Vermont: 802-828-2865 or 866-828-2865

Happy refund hunting!
—jd

This entry was posted on Saturday, April 16th, 2005 at 1:54 pm and is filed under Miscellaneous. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.