Americans are receiving bigger tax refunds as the tax day approaches.
The average taxpayer refund jumped to $3,081, a 6% increase over the same week last year, according to the latest IRS filing data. So far, the total amount refunded — around $170 billion — is down from 2023, likely due to the current filing season starting one week later than last year’s.
Meanwhile, the agency received nearly 80.5 million returns in the last week of March — a huge volume but barely more than half the amount that will pour in during the week leading up to the tax deadline on April 15.
Continuing surge on the IRS website
Taxpayers continue to visit the IRS website looking for updates on the status of their returns.
IRS website usage surged 19% over last March to more than 441 million visitors. Over the last seven days, 21 million taxpayers have landed on the IRS’s web page, with most people heading to the Where’s My Refund? tool.
Other common landing pages included the search function, payments option, and forms and instruction publications. Website visits will eventually plateau as returns are filed and refunds are processed, an agency spokesperson previously told Yahoo Finance.
Where the procrastinators are
Americans in the South are waiting until the last minute to file their returns. For the second consecutive year, the top five cities with the most tax day procrastinators are Atlanta, Orlando, Fl., Salt Lake City, Fort Lauderdale, and Miami, according to a recent study by the Chamber of Commerce.
Over half of taxpayers surveyed by the Chamber of Commerce cited return complications and overall stress as the top reasons for late filing. Other common explanations are a natural tendency to procrastinate (47%), filing being too time-consuming (42%), and making sure information is correct (29%).
“It’s tempting to procrastinate, but it’s best to get as much of a head start as you can and avoid rushing through the process,” Collin Czarnecki, a researcher with the Chamber of Commerce, told Yahoo Finance. He added that half of Americans rush through filing taxes, which can lead to errors that reduce refund amounts.
Rebecca Chen is a reporter for Yahoo Finance and previously worked as an investment tax certified public accountant (CPA).
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