Tax Day has passed, and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is currently in the process of compiling data from the tax filing season. As of April 5, 2024, the IRS had received 101,849,000 tax returns, a slight increase from the previous year. However, the rate of processing is slightly behind last year’s numbers, with 100,110,000 individual income tax returns processed compared to 100,367,000 by the same time in 2023.
The majority of tax returns, 98,421,000, were filed electronically, with 46% of those returns being self-prepared. The IRS encourages taxpayers to file electronically as they often receive refunds within 21 days when using direct deposit. Additionally, there has been an 18.2% increase in web visits to IRS.gov compared to the previous year, with a total of 497,397,000 visits as of April 5, 2024.
The IRS has been enhancing its online services for individual taxpayers, business taxpayers, and tax professionals, allowing taxpayers to access tax records, make payments, view payment plans, and manage communication preferences online. Taxpayers may also be using the website more frequently to check the status of their tax refunds through the “Where’s My Refund?” tool, which is updated daily.
Despite the increase in web visits and electronic filing, the number of tax refunds issued this year has decreased compared to the previous year. As of April 5, 2024, the IRS had issued 66,799,000 tax refunds, totaling $201.117 billion, a decrease of 3.3% from 2023. However, the average tax refund has increased to $3,011 per check, compared to $2,878 in the previous year.
Most tax refunds were issued via direct deposit, totaling 63,445,000 refunds as of April 7, 2024, with an average refund amount of $3,088. This marks a 4.3% increase from the previous year. The total amount refunded via direct deposit increased by 0.3% to $195.901 billion, indicating that taxpayers are still opting for the convenience of direct deposit for their refunds.
With the tax filing season coming to a close, the IRS is expected to release complete data in the coming weeks to provide a comprehensive overview of this year’s tax returns. Taxpayers are advised to continue utilizing the IRS website for updates on their tax refunds and to take advantage of the online services offered by the IRS for managing their tax accounts.
