IRS Says Average Tax Refund Is Nearly 11% Lower This Year

If you've already filed your taxes this year, you probably noticed that your refund was smaller than it was in 2022. After processing more than 80 million tax returns, the Internal Revenue Service said that nearly 60 million taxpayers received a refund in 2023.

The IRS says it has processed $172 billion worth of refunds so far, and the average is $2,903, about $360 less than in 2022.

The main reason for the decline was that the government didn't send out any stimulus funds in 2022, and several tax credits expired.

The lower refunds come as many Americans are struggling to deal with rising inflation. According to a survey by Bankrate, 75% of taxpayers said that their refund is important to their financial situation, with 43% saying the refund is "very important."

"It's reasonable to expect that many people will receive smaller tax refunds this year," said Ted Rossman, senior industry analyst at Bankrate. "That's mostly because many pandemic-related tax breaks have expired: stimulus payments, the expanded child tax credit, and the expanded child and dependent care credit, to name a few."