Average tax refund from IRS so far this year: $3,034

Filing taxes is rarely fun, but some taxpayers are at least enjoying a slightly bigger refund in the 2014 tax season. By the end of February the average tax refund handed out was $3,034, the Internal Revenue Service said. That’s up 3 percent compared with the same period a year ago.

More than 48 million refunds had been issued by Feb. 28, up 5.6 percent from the same time last year, the tax agency said. About 88 percent of those refunds have been direct deposits to taxpayer bank accounts instead of paper checks.

The IRS said it had received nearly 40 percent of all the tax returns expected this season. More than 57 million individual tax returns have been processed, up nearly 11 percent from last year.

Nearly two-thirds of Americans said they will save or invest their refunds, the survey said. More than 20 percent say they will pay off debt, and nearly that amount plan to buy necessities. Only 19 percent of those surveyed say they plan to splurge or make purchases that were not needed, the survey said.
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Los Angeles Times