Tax Day has come and gone, marking the end of the tax filing season for most of the country. Data through April 5, 2024, shows that the IRS had received 101,849,000 tax returns, a slight increase from the previous year. However, the rate of processing is slightly behind last year’s numbers, with 100,110,000 individual income tax returns processed as of April 5, 2024.
Of the total returns received, 98,421,000 were e-filed, representing over 98% of all returns. The IRS encourages taxpayers to file electronically as those who e-file and use direct deposit typically receive their refund within 21 days. About 46% of e-filed returns were self-prepared, while professionally prepared returns accounted for 53,157,000 of e-filed returns received by April 5, 2024.
Web visits to IRS.gov have increased by 18.2% compared to the previous year, with 497,397,000 visits to the website as of April 5, 2024. The IRS has been expanding its online capabilities for individual taxpayers, business taxpayers, and tax professionals, encouraging taxpayers to resolve account issues, access tax records, make payments, and manage communication preferences online.
Taxpayers may be using the website to check the status of their tax refunds. The IRS continues to remind taxpayers to use the Where’s My Refund? tool to check the status of their refund. As of April 5, 2024, the IRS had issued 66,799,000 tax refunds, a decrease of 3.3% from the previous year, totaling $201.117 billion in refunds. The average tax refund has increased to $3,011 per check as of April 5, 2024.
Most refunds were issued via direct deposit, with a total of 63,445,000 direct deposit refunds issued as of April 7, 2024, totaling $195.901 billion. The average direct deposit refund was $3,088, a 4.3% increase from the previous year. Overall, while the number of refunds issued has decreased compared to the previous year, the total amount refunded has seen a slight increase of .3%.
As the tax season comes to a close, the IRS will continue to update taxpayers on the status of their refunds and encourage the use of online tools to manage tax accounts and payments. The final data for the tax filing season will provide a more comprehensive outlook on the trends and outcomes of this year’s tax season. Stay tuned for more updates as the IRS finalizes the data for the 2024 tax filing season.
