Tax filing season statistics still suggest that filers aren’t rushing to file their returns—but tax refunds are continuing their upward trend.
Tax Filing Season Data
The IRS had previously announced that they expected more than 128.7 million individual tax returns to be filed by Tax Day, April 15, 2024.
As of March 22, 2024, the IRS had received 80,470,000 tax returns, compared to 80,683,000 returns received as of March 24, 2023, a .3% decline. That suggests that taxpayers aren’t in a hurry to file.
Some of that could be attributable to the weather—the spring hasn’t been kind to many parts of the country—but it’s more likely that taxpayers who might have been impacted by pending legislation put filing on hold. Not only would the Tax Relief for American Families and Workers Act expand the child tax credit retroactively to the 2023 tax year, it would help small and private businesses by allowing immediately expensing of domestic research and experimental expenditures, providing for 100% bonus depreciation for qualifying property, and loosening the interest expense limitation rules.
The bill was announced in mid-January and passed the House at the end of the month with considerable bipartisan support (357-70). The bill has stalled in the Senate and no vote has been scheduled.
Despite the uncertainty that the bill will advance, IRS Commissioner Danny Werner has encouraged taxpayers to file anyway, saying that the IRS will make any necessary changes. Nonetheless, some taxpayers may have opted to extend.
The rate of processing is also a bit behind last year’s numbers. IRS tax season data shows that the IRS has processed 79,243,000 individual income tax returns as of March 22, 2024, as compared to 80,369,000 by March 24, 2023. That’s a decrease of 1.4%.
Just under half—about 48%—of e-filed returns have been self-prepared. That percentage has dropped as the season progresses, which isn’t unusual. Professionally prepared returns—those accounted for 40,311,000 of e-filed returns received so far in 2024—tend to pick up as the season rolls on.
A significant majority of the returns received to date—just under 97%—were e-filed. That number is slightly lower than earlier in the tax season and will likely settle. The IRS encourages taxpayers to file electronically, noting that taxpayers who e-file and use direct deposit typically see a refund within 21 days.
Web visits to IRS.gov continued to climb, increasing by 19.0% compared to last year. There have been 441,085,000 visits to the website as of March 22, 2024, compared to 370,706,000 visits as of March 24, 2023.
Taxpayers could be clicking over to check out new services. The IRS has been ramping up its online capabilities for individual taxpayers, business taxpayers, and tax professionals. The IRS encourages taxpayers to log in and resolve taxpayer account issues online, when possible. With online access, individual taxpayers can access tax records, make and view payments (including scheduling and canceling payments), view or create payment plans (including expanding and revising plans), view their balance, and manage communication preferences. You can also save multiple bank accounts, validate bank account information, and display bank names.
Taxpayers may also be using the website more often to check the status of their tax refunds. The IRS reminds taxpayers that Where’s My Refund? remains the best way to check the status of a refund. Refund status information is typically available within 24 hours after the IRS receives your e-filed tax return for the current tax year, three to four days after receipt of your e-filed tax return for the tax years 2022 or 2021, or four weeks after mailing your paper return.
The IRS only updates the tool once a day, usually overnight.
The number of refunds issued remains lower those from last year. The IRS has issued 54,990,000 tax refunds as of March 22, 2024, compared to 59,342,000 tax refunds issued as of March 24, 2023, a decrease of 7.3%. That works out to $169.411 billion in total refunds, compared to $172.263 billion in 2023, a decrease of 1.7%.
The average tax refund has edged up—it’s $3,081 compared to last week’s $2,903 per taxpayer from last year.
Most of those refunds were issued via direct deposit. The total number of direct deposit refunds issued was 52,795,000, as of March 22, 2024, a decline of 5.6%. Overall, the total amount refunded with direct deposit sit at $166.424 billion, a .5% decline. But, the average direct deposit refund was a little higher than the prior year, weighing in $3,152, compared to the previous year amount of $ 2,991, a 5.4% increase.
Tax Day is April 15, 2024—it will be here before you know it. Check back as the season progresses for updated numbers.
Read the full article here
