Wondering how you measure up to other taxpayers? The team at Acxiom Corporation recently sampled 1.4 million individuals to uncover a number of interesting characteristics about each kind of tax filer. They then developed an infographic which explores a number of characteristics of each type of tax filer.
Here’s what they found:
The data is based on taxpayers who filed in 2016 – so that’s data for the 2015 tax year. According to Justin Schuster, Acxiom Head of Corporate Marketing & Communications, the company used publicly available government data, including Internal Revenue Service (IRS) filing statistics, as a springboard for examining other characteristics. That data could be extrapolated, explained Reba Chaisson, Acxiom Senior Manager of Research and Insights, based on a number of factors such as where households are located. The results were analyzed and some of the most interesting findings were condensed into the infographic.
It’s an interesting take on data – and offers up a view that might be different from what you’d expect. For example, we all know that early filers tend to get tax refunds. The data does bear that out: 75% of early filers get a tax refund as compared to just 45% of on-time filers. But interestingly, the data indicated that 85% of late filers also received a tax refund last year.
And which age demographic tends to file early? Not millennials. The data suggests that millennials are least likely age group to file their taxes early. Late filers tend to be students or young people just getting started in their careers – which might explain those tax refund numbers.
When it comes to tax refunds, late filers also take home a bigger share of refund dollars: late filers collected, on average, $100 more than on-time filers.
Some taxpayers never collect their tax refunds at all: the IRS says it has more than $1 billion in outstanding tax refunds remain unclaimed from 2013. That represents an estimated one million taxpayers who might have qualified for a refund but who did not file a federal income tax return in order to claim their refund (find out more here).
Acxiom Corporation is a marketing technology and services company with offices all over the world. They provide data, connectivity, and services to help companies understand and engage with their customers.
