Tax Refunds From IRS Are Smaller Than Last Year’s, Data Show

The average tax refund issued so far this year is $2,201, down about $600 from the the typical refund issued last year, according to statistics from the Internal Revenue Service.

In the first week of the filing season, the IRS received about 16.7 million tax returns and processed about 13 million of those, according to data for the week ending Feb. 4, released Friday. That’s a slightly lower rate than in the first week of filing last year. The agency has warned of slow processing times and delayed refunds, particularly for forms filed on paper or that contain errors, both ...