Early Tax Refunds Are Showing A 14% Increase, IRS Says

Authored by Jack Phillips via The Epoch Times,

The average tax refund for American taxpayers has increased on a year-over-year basis, the IRS said in a Feb. 20 update.

The average refund amount increased 14.2 percent in 2026 to $2,476 as of Feb. 13, according to the agency. Last year, the average refund for the same time period was $2,169.

Meanwhile, the average direct deposit refund amount for taxpayers is up 13.1 percent year over year, from $2,252 in 2025 to $2,548 in 2026.

The IRS added that the total number of tax returns that the agency has received and processed is down slightly year over year.

About 32,175,000 tax returns have been filed as of Feb. 13, a 2.6 percent decrease year over year. For the same time period last year, 33,040,000 tax returns were filed, the agency said.

The total number of returns processed by the IRS paints a similar picture. Some 31,795,000 tax returns have been processed as of Feb. 13, a year-over-year decline of 3.1 percent.

“Average refund amounts are strong,” the IRS said in its update, adding that the agency is required by federal law to hold refunds until Feb. 15 for returns that claim the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) or the Additional Child Tax Credit (ACTC).

“It’s important to note this week’s refund numbers do not include millions of EITC and ACTC refunds to these taxpayers. This means the refund numbers expected to be released Feb. 27, for refunds processed through Feb. 20, are expected to be higher.”

Also, since some taxpayers were “still waiting for important tax documents at the end of January, the IRS expects the tax return filing numbers generally will catch up in the following weeks,” the agency said.

The final average refund amount last year was $3,167, IRS figures show.

The data release comes as President Donald Trump and administration officials have been touting their tax plan under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA) that was passed in Congress and signed by Trump into law last year.

Late last month, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in a Fox News interview that there would be “substantial refunds for working Americans.” He added that once a change in tax withholding is underway, employees “have bigger take-home pay every two weeks” or “every month.”

Multiple new tax law provisions under the OBBBA took effect this year, according to the IRS. Congressional Democrats have been largely critical of the Trump administration’s economic agenda, especially after the Democratic Party had victories in several states during the November 2025 elections.

Democrats have also targeted the administration for what they said are policies that have increased inflationary pressures due to its tariffs, which were dealt a blow by the Supreme Court this past week.

“Housing costs have been skyrocketing. Rent is too high and eating away at the ability for people to save money to own a home. The average age of a first-time homebuyer just hit a record high of over 40 years old,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said in a January statement.

Tax filing season officially started on Jan. 26 and is scheduled to end on April 15, 2026. The IRS Free File started on Jan. 9, while the extension deadline is Oct. 15.

The tax revenue agency said it expects that approximately 164 million individual tax returns will be filed in 2026.