Tax season is "progressing smoothly" according to the Internal Revenue Service.
"With less than two weeks left in the filing season, the IRS continues to provide historically outstanding service to taxpayers," said IRS chief executive officer Frank Bisignano, in a statement on Thursday. "Tens of millions of Americans are getting their refunds direct deposited in their bank accounts and their returns processed promptly without error or delay."
The number of individual tax returns received and processed by the agency so far this year was roughly on par with last year's tax season, according to data as of March 20, the latest available.
Refunds were much larger this year, however – the average refund as of March 20 was worth $3,571, up 10.9%, or roughly $350, from last year.
Also up were visits to IRS.gov, by almost 50%, and likely for some of the same reasons as refunds are higher: Many provisions last July's One Big Beautiful Bill Act offer new tax credits and deductions, but they're fairly complicated to claim.
Interestingly, the proportion of self-prepared to professionally prepared returns has not changed significantly this year, though in the past taxpayers have tended to turn to tax pros in years when major new tax legislation has been enacted.
The IRS highlighted a few other statistics:
- Over 80% of refunds were issued in less than 21 days.
- Over 98% of tax refunds have been issued electronically via direct deposit.
- Over 98% of returns were filed electronically.
The high proportion of refunds delivered via direct deposit, which grew by 11.2%, is likely a reflection of the federal government's decision to being phasing out paper checks.
Taxpayers who don't include banking information on their returns so that the IRS can direct deposit their refunds will receive a
The IRS did note, however, that if the necessary banking information isn't provided within 30 days, they will issue a paper check in approximately two weeks.
