Tax Day has come—and for much of the country—gone. It will be a couple of weeks before we have complete data for the season, but we do have data through April 5, 2024.
Here’s a quick look.
Tax Filing Season Data
The IRS had previously announced that they expected more than 128.7 million individual tax returns to be filed by Tax Day, April 15, 2024.
As of April 5, 2024, the IRS had received 101,849,000 tax returns, compared to 101,320,000 returns received as of April 7, 2023, a .5% increase.
The rate of processing is a bit behind last year’s numbers. IRS tax season data shows that the IRS has processed 100,110,000 individual income tax returns as of April 5, 2024, as compared to 100,367,000 by April 7, 2023. That’s a decrease of .3%.
Of those returns, 98,421,000 were e-filed—just over 98%. The IRS encourages taxpayers to file electronically, noting that taxpayers who e-file and use direct deposit typically see a refund within 21 days.
Just under half—about 46%—of e-filed returns have been self-prepared. Professionally prepared returns accounted for 53,157,000 of e-filed returns received by April 5, 2024.
Web visits to IRS.gov continued to climb, increasing by 18.2% compared to last year. There have been 497,397,000 visits to the website as of April 5, 2024, compared to 420,715,000 visits as of April 7, 2023.
Taxpayers could be clicking over to check out new services. The IRS has been ramping up its online capabilities for individual taxpayers, business taxpayers, and tax professionals. The IRS encourages taxpayers to log in and resolve taxpayer account issues online, when possible. With online access, individual taxpayers 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.
Taxpayers may also be using the website more often to check the status of their tax refunds. The IRS reminds taxpayers that Where’s My Refund? remains the best way to check the status of a refund. 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 remains lower those from last year. The IRS has issued 66,799,000 tax refunds as of April 5, 2024, compared to 69,095,000 tax refunds issued as of April 7, 2023, a decrease of 3.3%. That works out to $201.117 billion in total refunds, compared to $198.868 billion in 2023, a decrease of 1.1%.
The average tax refund has edged up—it’s $3,011 per check as of April 5, 2024, as compared to $2,878 as of April 7, 2023.
Most of those refunds were issued via direct deposit. The total number of direct deposit refunds issued was 63,445,000, as of April 7, 2024, a decline of 4.4%. Overall, the total amount refunded with direct deposit sits at $195.901 billion, a .3% increase. But, the average direct deposit refund was a little higher than the prior year, weighing in $3,088, compared to the previous year amount of $2,942, a 4.3% increase.
(I’ll report back when we have complete data.)
