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What is the Average Tax Refund?
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I discovered this slick looking infographic on early filers from TurboTax just this past weekend and was surprised by a few of the statistics they discovered. I was surprised that the average tax refund was $2,869 (seems high doesn’t it?) and that nearly a quarter of them make under $25,000. If you are in that category, it may make sense to adjust your tax withholding as you don’t want to give Uncle Sam 25% of your income.
I wanted to dig a little deeper on the question of average income tax refund because nearly three thousand dollars seems really high but it actually isn’t. It took a bit of searching but after some research into the IRS.gov’s 2008 Data Book and their SOI Tax Stats page, I was able to glean a few gems about the average tax refund.
Average Tax Year 2008 Refund: $2,728
Average Tax Year 2009 Refund: $3,036
Average Tax Year 2010 Refund: $2,913 (link)
Of the 96,673,000 returns filed in Tax Year 2008 (tax returns filed by April 2009) that were entitled to a refund, the average refund was $2,683. The early birds did have a higher average but not by much, 6.9%. The average return in Tax Year 2007 was $2,371 and it remains to be seen what the average will be for an economically saddened Tax Year 2008. This trend seems to hold true every year, the bigger the refund, the earlier people file.
Incidentally, of the 131.5 million individual tax returns, 73.5% of them were entitled to a refund of some kind. If you’re a stat junkie and glean anything remarkable in those IRS stats, please let us know!
(Photo: doncav)
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My mom is a registered nurse and she claimed me (21) & my daughter (4) and she was suppose to give me all the money she received for us. $600 is what she claims to be the money. Does this sound right? By the way I have full blown sickle-cell & and am considered a paraplegic since my accident two years ago.
It is your mom’s tax refund, not yours. Just because she was able to claim you as a dependent, does not mean it’s your money! Be happy she gave you what she did! Perhaps having a child at the age of 17 didn’t help your situation.
Please ignore the ignorant person that commented before me. If you worked in the last year, you file separate from your mother, even if she claims you. If you did not work, then you won’t be receiving a return because you didn’t pay taxes from your wages. Filing is fairly simple and you can have your federal stuff done for free a lot of places. Good luck!
Perhaps it’s none of your business what she does with her life. What gives you the right to be able to say anything. Some people who have children at a young age, plan it, and are good parents. Most don’t. Now a days it’s a trend. And I completely agree with the fact that she should’ve recieved part of that money. When you have children you do what you have to take care of you and them. If my family claimed me, you better believe I would be getting my share to take care of my babies. Especially if I worked and could’ve filed my own, and was nice enough to let them claim me so that they could make more. Find something better to do with your life other than to do research and decide to get into other peoples lives who have absolutely nothing to do with you. And people having children at a young age doesn’t affect your life at all. Especially since she’s a stranger, and doesn’t even know you. Or maybe she does and you just posted as anonymous, because you’re so pathetic that you couldn’t put your name up there. For all we know your a 40 year old who has your first baby, and you can’t stand the fact that she’s young and a better parent than you are. Stop running your mouth online, it’s so rediculous…
First of all, we get tax refunds based on the amount of taxes we owe compared to what we’ve already paid in. When we claim 1 or 2 on our W2, then we are paying less to the government than claiming 0, so the first thing you should ask is, what did your Mom claim. If she claimed zero, she paid all taxes possible, and will be getting a higher refund. If she need the money to support you guys, she should have claimed 2-3 in order to have the cash available to support you. This ultimately determines the amount she will get back.
Secondly, assuming your mother is raising you and your child since she is claiming both of you, she is the one that is getting the refund money because she is the one that is working and earning the money to pay for your expenses. I can only assume you have no income, or else you would be filing yourself and claiming your child, in which case you would be getting much more than if you did nothing and let your mom give you what little she gets back from the government compared to the amount she shells out all year to pay for the cost of living for the both of you.