{"id":42781,"date":"2026-04-06T17:34:05","date_gmt":"2026-04-06T17:34:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/?p=42781"},"modified":"2026-04-06T17:34:05","modified_gmt":"2026-04-06T17:34:05","slug":"average-tax-refund-is-up-350-compared-to-last-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/?p=42781","title":{"rendered":"Average tax refund is up $350 compared to last year"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Antonio Garcia Recena | Moment | Getty Images<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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The\u00a0average tax refund<\/a>\u00a0is about $350 higher so far this season, compared with about the same period in 2025, according to the latest IRS filing data.<\/p>\n

As of March 27, the\u00a0average refund amount<\/a>\u00a0for individual filers was $3,521, up from $3,170 roughly one year ago, the IRS reported on Friday. <\/p>\n

The IRS data reflects about 88.4 million individual returns received, out of about 164 million expected<\/a> through the April 15 deadline.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Read more CNBC personal finance coverage<\/h2>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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This season, many filers are seeing bigger tax refunds<\/a> based on changes enacted by President Donald Trump<\/a>‘s “big beautiful bill<\/a>” in July.<\/p>\n

Most U.S. workers are W-2 employees, which means companies pay their taxes throughout the year via paycheck withholdings<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Although Trump’s legislation included 2025 tax cuts, the IRS didn’t update withholding tables<\/a>, and many workers overpaid taxes through the rest of 2025.<\/p>\n

Typically, you can expect a tax refund when you overpay taxes. Alternatively, you may have a balance due when you didn’t pay enough. <\/p>\n

The size of tax refunds has been a focus for Republicans as the November midterm elections approach. The GOP has pointed to bigger average refunds triggered by Trump’s tax breaks as many Americans struggle with affordability. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n

How Trump’s legislation is affecting returns<\/h2>\n
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Nearly 50% of the tax returns filed in 2026 have included one of Trump’s “signature campaign policies” \u2014 the deductions for tip income<\/a>, overtime earnings<\/a>, seniors<\/a> and auto loan interest<\/a> \u2014 Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in late March during a “Fox & Friends” interview<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Bessent said the overtime deduction has been a “home run,”<\/a> claimed on 25% of returns received by the IRS, which amounted to almost 20 million filings, as of March 20.<\/p>\n

In a Jan. 26\u00a0release<\/a>, the White House said the average taxpayer could\u00a0receive an extra $1,000<\/a>\u00a0or more, citing early October data from investment bank Piper Sandler.\u00a0But so far, average tax refunds have been smaller<\/a>, according to IRS data.<\/p>\n

“We are seeing an uptick in refunds,” Tom O’Saben, director of tax content and government relations at the National Association of Tax Professionals, said during a press call last week.<\/p>\n

“I don’t know that it’s substantial, but one person’s substantial is another person’s pittance,” he said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Choose CNBC as your preferred source on Google and never miss a moment from the most trusted name in business news.<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n
Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Antonio Garcia Recena | Moment | Getty Images The\u00a0average tax refund\u00a0is about $350 higher so far this season,…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":42782,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-42781","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-investing","8":"cs-entry","9":"cs-video-wrap"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42781","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=42781"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42781\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/42782"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=42781"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=42781"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=42781"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}