With about six weeks to go in the 2016 tax filing season, more than a third of all taxpayers expecting to file a tax return have already submitted tax returns. As of February 26, 2016, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) had received 58,304,000 tax returns, a change of just -0.4% from 2015, when 58,528,000 tax returns were received. Over that same time, 56,290,000 tax returns were processed, down 1.0% from the same time that year, when 56,857,000 tax returns were processed.
Not surprisingly, most tax returns filed so far this season were e-filed: a whopping 55,081,000, or 94% of returns received in 2016. About half (27,709,000) of those returns were prepared by a tax professional with the remainder (27,372,000) being self-prepared. Those numbers reflect a small dip in the numbers of returns which were professionally prepared compared to last year. However, those numbers could increase as the season continues (more complicated returns tend to be filed towards the end of the filing season).
Despite the fact that the IRS website went down last month due to a hardware failure, visits to the website at www.irs.gov are up – way up. The IRS reports that there were nearly 200,000,000 visits to the website compared to just 177,807,672 visits for the same time last year. The 198,392,400 visits represent an 11.6% spike in traffic as compared to 2015.
It’s not surprising that the lion’s share of returns submitted so far resulted in a refund. Nearly 80% ($46,533,000) of the tax returns received to date resulted in a tax refund to the taxpayer. That’s not unexpected: most early filers expect to receive a refund which is why they file early (who doesn’t want their money now?). Taxpayers who expect to owe tend to file a little later in the season. About half of all taxpayers will receive a refund in 2016 – not 8 in 10 as the statistics indicate early in the season.
The total amount of refunds issued to date is $142.085 billion, down from $144.903 billion for the same time last year. However, those figures don’t negatively affect the amounts paid out to taxpayers. The average refund issued to date is $3,053: $5 more than last year.
Most refunds (91%) were issued via direct deposit.
The IRS says that most taxpayers who e-file and use direct deposit will receive their refund in less than 21 days. To check the status of your refund, check out the “Where’s My Refund?” tool on the IRS website or the IRS2Go Mobile app (available on Google Play, the Apple Store, and Amazon). “Where’s My Refund?” is updated once every 24 hours, usually overnight.
