Fewer People Are Getting Tax Refunds This Year, IRS Stats Show

By Dave Eisenstadter, masslive.com (TNS)

Did you end up unexpectedly owing money on your taxes this year? Statistics from the IRS ending on March 1 indicate you’re not alone.

Compared with a similar point in the tax season the previous year, there have been nearly 6 million fewer refunds, IRS records show.

By March 3, 2023, 42,040,000 refunds had been issued compared with 36,288,000 by March 1 of this year, a difference of 5.75 million or nearly 14%.

A small part of that can be explained by the calendar—last year’s tax season began a week earlier than this year—but the number of tax returns received and processed is only about 2% lower than this point in the tax season last year, according to the statistics.

Those that have received a refund have gotten more money on average. Refunds increased by about 5% over last year from $3,028 to $3,182.

That’s a change from IRS statistics released earlier in the tax season, when refunds were reportedly down by nearly 30%.

At the time, Mark Steber, chief tax information officer at Jackson Hewitt, told CNBC that many people who would have filed early, such as recipients of popular tax credits like the earned income tax credit or the child tax credit, still hadn’t filed.

Filers claiming the refundable portion of the child tax credit or earned income tax credit don’t get refunds until Feb. 27 at the earliest, according to the IRS.

Overall, the IRS received just over 54 million tax returns as of March 1 and had processed 53.2 million. By that point in the tax season last year, the IRS had received nearly 55 million returns and had processed 54.3 million.

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