March 10, 2009

Individual taxpayers are filing earlier and receiving larger refunds so far this year [IR 2009-20]:  The number of individual tax returns received by IRS as of Feb. 27—55,049,000—showed a slight increase over the number of returns received during a comparable period in 2008, IRS said on March 6.  The total number of electronically filed returns was 42,246,000, an increase of 5.6% over 2008. E-filed returns from tax professionals declined by 0.5% while the number of self-prepared returns grew by 18.6%. The average refund amount was $2,859, an 8.8% increase over last year. “Possible reasons for the larger refunds may include taxpayers benefiting from the recovery rebate credit and other tax breaks such as the first-time homebuyer credit and the additional standard deduction for real estate taxes,” IRS said.