Taxpayers who received a refund in 2015, like approximately 80 percent of all taxpayers did, could be eagerly anticipating tax time 2016. People who are expecting a tax refund will most likely start early in the year with calculating the amount of their refund, as well as attempting to predict its arrival date.

There are three basic steps when it comes to refunds. They are receiving phase, processing phase, and refund processed or complete phase. You can check the status of your refund by using IRS.gov and visiting the “Where’s my refund?” page beginning about 24 hours after the IRS has received your e-file return.

You could possibly receive your refund in a period as short as six to eight days provided you e-filed your return and asked for direct deposit of your refund to your account. You actually might not get your refund quite that fast, however. According to the IRS, nine out of ten refunds are issued in no more than 21 days.

So, receiving your refund this year could occur in one, two, or three weeks from your filing date, which is inside the time frame that is standard for the IRS. Bear in mind, however, that a number of taxpayer returns could be running a bit late, this year or any other, due to some staffing issues or new laws, such as ACA laws, as well as additional factors that could cause a delay.

In the event that you haven’t received your refund within that three-week time frame even though you filed electronically, you might want to consider contacting the IRS to find out the status of your refund. Below is a chart of approximate dates when you could receive your refund if it is direct deposited and you e-filed. The IRS began accepting tax returns on Jan. 20, 2017, so that is the first date range on the chart.

If You File Electronically Earliest Latest 1/20/2017 to 1/30/2017 2/6/17 2/20/17 1/30/2017 to 2/6/2017 2/12/17 2/27/17 2/6/2017 to 2/13/2017 2/19/17 3/6/17 2/13/2017 to 2/20/2017 2/26/17 3/13/17 2/20/2017 to 2/27/2017 3/5/17 3/20/17 2/27/2017 to 3/6/2017 3/12/17 3/27/17 3/6/2017 to 3/13/2017

3/19/17 4/3/17 3/13/2017 to 3/20/2017 3/26/17 4/10/17 3/20/2017 to 3/27/2017 4/2/17 4/17/17 3/27/2017 to 4/3/2017 4/9/17 4/24/17 4/3/2017 to 4/10/2017 4/16/17 5/1/17 4/10/2017 to 4/17/2017 4/23/17 5/8/17 4/17/2017 to 4/24/2017 4/30/17 5/15/17 4/24/2017 to 5/1/2017 5/7/17 5/22/17

Wait for it

Since refund anticipation loans that were once provided by tax services are no longer available, most taxpayers will simply be waiting for their refunds. Those loans were previously available at a fee that was almost as high as the APR charged by payday lenders. Now, there are not as many options for getting that money faster.

There are still a few options to waiting, including using your credit cards and paying them off when you’ve received your refund. There are also more options such as additional types of short-term loans, or borrowing from friends or family and promising to pay it back when your refund comes in. The best option, however, is probably just to wait for the time when you have your tax refund money in-hand instead.