The most recent tax filing season data from the IRS suggests that there’s no reason to panic. Taxpayers are submitting their tax returns—they just don’t appear to be in a rush to do it.
The agency had previously announced that they expected more than 128.7 million individual tax returns to be filed by Tax Day, April 15, 2024. The season is a bit more compressed than last year—78 days in 2024 as compared to 86 days in 2023—which means that the data roughly reflects the halfway point. As of March 8, 2024, the IRS had received 62,761,000 tax returns, about 49% of the expected totals for the year.
Tax Filing Season Data
The specific comparisons reflect that as of March 8, 2024, the IRS had received 62,761,000 tax returns, compared to 63,442,000 returns received as of March 10, 2023, a 1.1% decline.
The data shows that the IRS has processed 61,877,000 individual income tax returns as of March 8, 2024, as compared to 63,191,000 by March 10, 2023. That’s a decrease of 2.1%.
Taxpayers may be giving up on the idea that the Tax Relief for American Families and Workers Act will become law. The legislation, which would, among other things, expand the child tax credit retroactively to the 2023 tax year, 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. It’s looking increasingly likely that there won’t be any action before Tax Day. Senate Republicans have signaled opposition to the bill, including Sen. Mike Crapo (Idaho), the ranking Republican on the Senate Finance Committee, who objects to a provision that would allow taxpayers to use the previous year’s earnings to qualify for a larger child tax credit if their income had dropped.
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.
Most—about 52%—of e-filed returns have been self-prepared. That number is dropping as the season progresses, which isn’t unusual. Professionally prepared returns—those accounted for 29,644,000 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 98%—were e-filed. That number is the roughly same as the last few weeks and isn’t expected to drop. 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 remained robust, increasing by a whopping 18.2% compared to last year. There have been 376,622,000 visits to the website as of March 8, 2024, compared to 318,555,000 visits as of March 10, 2023.
Taxpayers may be using the website more often to check the status of their tax refunds. The IRS has reminded taxpayers that Where’s My Refund? remains the best way to check the status of a refund. Notably, it provides taxpayers with three key pieces of information: receipt of your federal tax return, approval of your tax refund, and issuing date of your approved tax refund. Information for returns from tax years 2023, 2022 and 2021 is available.
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 took a dip. The IRS has issued 43,020,000 tax refunds so far in 2024 compared to 49,174,000 as of March 10, 2023, a decrease of 12.5%. That works out to $135.281 billion in total refunds, compared to $146.166 billion in 2023, a decrease of 7.4%.
The average tax refund has dipped a little bit for the season—it’s $3,145 compared to last week’s $3,182 per taxpayer. However, it’s higher than the same time last year—the number was $3,023 as of March 10, 2023.
Most of those refunds were issued via direct deposit. The total number of direct deposit refunds issued was 41,719,000, as of March 8, 2024, a decline of 8.8%. Overall, the total amount refunded with direct deposit sit at $133.896 billion, a 4.8% decline. But, the average direct deposit refund was a little higher than the prior year, weighing in $3,209, compared to the previous year amount of $3,074, a 4.4% increase.
The law requires the IRS to hold refunds tied to the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) and the ACTC until mid-February. The IRS advised that EITC/ACTC filers should expect to see refunds by February 27, 2024, if they e-filed their returns and opted for direct deposit (and there were no issues with those returns). We are well past that window, so the pace of refunds should be steady.
In addition to checking for those refunds, taxpayers may also be checking the IRS website for notices and balances. The IRS has been increasingly encouraging taxpayers to log in and resolve taxpayer account issues online, when possible. With online access, you 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.
(Online access has also improved for tax professionals and business accounts, too.)
Check back as the season progresses for updated numbers.
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