If you've already filed your 2013 tax return, chances are you're getting a refund.
Most taxpayers do, either serendipitously as my personal finance blogging colleague J. Money recently discovered or because they view over-withholding as a handy forced savings account.
Through March 21, the Internal Revenue Service had issued more than 67 million tax refunds.
The average amount for all refunds that week was $2,872.
That's a little less than the $2,980 average refund amount that was directly deposited to taxpayer accounts during that same time period.
Refunds and filing timing: It's also notably smaller than the $3,317 average refund sent out soon after this filing season finally began.
The drop in refund check totals is to be expected. Folks getting big refunds tend to file as early possible. Then those getting smaller amounts back are next.
Then there's my group. We owe Uncle Sam a little (OK, sometimes a lot), meaning we'll send our 1040s (or extension requests) and payments on April 15.
Because the hubby and I typically don't get a refund, we never get to take advantage of what IRS Commissioner John Koskinen says is the agency's most popular online feature, the Where's My Refund? online tracking tool.
Koskinen spoke today before a National Press Club gathering in Washington, D.C. I wasn't able to justify a quick up-and-back to hear him in person, but I did catch the live stream (thank you technology gods!) of his address. I'll blog about it later.
Now, however, I wanted to share this tidbit revealed today by the commish. Where's My Refund? was used more than 200 million times last year.
"That doesn't mean there were 200 million individual taxpayers [clicking the refund tracking link]," Koskinen said. "Some of them just couldn't resist pushing the app to figure out where is my refund, pushing it every day."
Admit it. You were one of those multiple clickers. That's OK. The IRS is glad that so many folks found its online service useful.
And I'm glad, too, because that 200 million mark is this week's By the Numbers figure.
Now go ahead. Head on over to the IRS website and see if you can find out where your tax cash is and help the tracking tool surpass last year's number of visitors.
You also might find these items of interest:
JohnH
Here is another use for “Where’s My Refund” that I used a couple of years ago. If you had to pay additional tax with your return and mailed a paper return, you can still use “Where’s My Refund” to verify the IRS received your return. This will save any angst that the return was not received. Just enter zero as the amount of the refund.
Of course the better way, if you’re going to mail your return, is to send your return via certified mail-return receipt requested.