Americans’ taxes by the numbers

By Jeanne Sahadi, CNN

(CNN) — The April 15 tax deadline has come and gone. And more households got money back this year compared to last year’s filing season. However, the average refund was lower than the Trump administration had estimated.

All in, the IRS had received 140.222 million income tax returns by the week ending April 17, according to the agency’s latest data. That’s a hair shy of the number of returns it had taken in during the same period a year earlier.

Of the 140 million-plus filers who sent in returns, roughly 65% (or 90.411 million) were owed refunds. That’s more than the 86.021 million who had gotten one by the end of the prior filing season.

One may get a refund for any number of reasons – due to personal circumstance, tax policies or both.

There are two policy reasons that most likely explain why more households got a refund this year.

The first was the addition or expansion of a number of tax breaks for 2025, including an enlarged state and local tax deduction for itemizers, plus new deductions for tips, overtime and car loan interest as well as an enhanced deduction for many filers who are 65 or older.

The US Treasury reported that as of April 14 more than 25 million filers had claimed the new overtime deduction; over 6 million took the tips deduction; over 1 million claimed the car loan interest deduction; and more than 30 million filers took the enhanced seniors deduction.

Second, the IRS did not update its tax withholding tables for 2025 after the new tax law that provided for those expanded or new breaks went into effect in July 2025. Consequently, many wage earners likely had more money withheld from their paychecks for income taxes than they owed during the July-through-December period.

Average refund up, but less than expected

In total through April 17, the IRS paid out a total of $296.067 billion in refunds, up from $253.116 billion a year earlier, a 17% jump.

Refunds averaged $3,275 per filer who was owed one, up $333 from $2,942 during the same period last year. But that is still well below the $1,000 the Treasury had been projecting earlier this year.

At the same time, 4.4 million more filers got a refund this year than had received one at the end of the last filing season.

Numbers may change by December

The amount of the average refund will likely change once the IRS processes the remaining 2025 returns that will be sent in between now and the end of December, many of which will be coming from tax filers granted six-month extensions to file.

Last year, for instance, the average refund was $3,167 by the end of December, above the $2,942 recorded for the week ending April 18.

So if the past few years are any guide, the average refund for tax year 2025 may actually go up somewhat by December 31.

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