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As the tax deadline approaches, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has released updated statistics on the 2025 tax season, revealing key trends in tax returns and tax refunds. With US income taxes due in under two weeks, data indicates that a significant number of taxpayers have already completed their filings and received their tax refunds. The IRS reported on Friday that it has processed more than 88 million individual tax returns and disbursed over 61 million tax refunds.
IRS Tax Season Progress: Key Statistics for 2025
Analyzing data through the ninth week of the 2024 tax season, the average tax refund amount showed an increase of approximately 8.9% compared to the same period in 2023. Below is a detailed look at the IRS’s performance this tax season, with less than two weeks remaining until Tax Day.
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Tax Return Processing Volume in 2025
The IRS published comparative statistics on Friday, assessing progress through week nine of tax season 2024 (ending March 29, 2024) against week nine of 2025 (ending March 28, 2025). As of this year, the IRS has handled 88.5 million federal income tax returns. This figure represents a slight decrease of 0.3% from the 88.8 million returns processed by the corresponding date last year.
In total, the IRS has received over 89.5 million tax returns to date, down 0.8% from the 90.3 million received by this time last year.
The agency further categorized filings by method, noting that 86.8 million returns were received electronically, with 46.3 million submitted by tax professionals and 40.4 million self-prepared.
Tax Refund Distribution in 2025
The IRS has distributed 61.5 million tax refunds, marking a 1.2% increase from the approximately 60.8 million issued by this point in March 2024.
The average tax refund amount to date is $3,170, an increase of 3.9% from last year’s average of $3,050 at the same time.
Comparison of 2025 and 2024 Tax Refunds
To date, the IRS has issued over $195 billion in tax refunds, a 5.1% increase compared to the $185.6 billion in tax refunds issued by the agency through March 2024.
The IRS clarified that significant percentage variations in filing statistics are common at the beginning of each tax season. They anticipated that these figures would stabilize as more individuals gather necessary tax documents and file their returns leading up to the April 15 deadline.