The Internal Revenue Service announced this week that the agency has received 135.6 million returns this year following a late flurry of filings during the last few days of the tax season.
During the last week, the IRS received more than 17 million tax returns. The vast majority, 13.6 million returns, were filed through IRS e-file, which for many offers free tax filings.
Refunds Swell to $268.3B Dollars
With the mid-April filings, the number of refunds issued this year swelled to 97 million worth $268.3 billion. The average refund was $2,763, up from last year’s average of $2,711. That means that the government is reaping that benefit from employees. Worker are not withholding the proper amount and sending too much money to the government. A lot of people like being “paid” by the government – however they are looking at things incorrectly. Instead, they could be saving that money for retirement, padding their emergency fund, or paying down debt.
Taxpayers have filed 11.6 million extension forms this filing season, up nearly 1 percent compared to the same time last year. The vast majority of extensions were e-filed, 9.7 million, an increase of 11 percent from the same time last year.
An extension form filed by the deadline allows a taxpayer to hold off on filing the actual tax return for six months, although any tax due must have been paid by the April 18 deadline to avoid interest and penalties.
Will Trump Tax Plan Change Payments?
This week the Trump Tax Plan was announced and it was based around three main goals
- Reduce tax rates for individuals and business to keep more money in American’s pockets
- Create millions of jobs due to a lower corporate tax rate
- Simplify the complex tax code
As more details emerge – we’ll find out specifically how it will impact our taxes for this year.
