The average tax refund is 10.8 percent higher this year when compared with the same time period in 2025, according to data released by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) on March 20.
The figures show that as of March 13, the average refund for individual filers for 2026 was $3,623, up from $3,271 from 2025.
Around 69.7 million individual tax returns have been received by the IRS so far, the agency said, around 1 percent down from the same time period last year. An estimated 164 million taxpayers are expected to file this season, which started on Jan. 26 and will run through April 15.
The release suggests that the average refund size has gradually declined over the past several weeks of filing updates released by the IRS. On Feb. 20, according to the figures, tax refunds increased more than 14 percent over the previous year….