Bigger Refunds
Your federal income tax return is not due for another month. But if you have filed early, you may already have gotten a refund…and that refund may be larger than in the recent past.
To be clear, the goal is to **not** get a big refund. If you do, it means you overpaid during the year and the government got to use your money without paying you interest. Sure, you may get a pile of money now, but you could have done more with it if you had had it all along.
And I have noted previously on the radio that folks should not count on a big refund, despite changes in the tax law that took effect in the reconciliation bill last July. That’s because the lion’s share of tax policy in that bill was simply to make permanent the provisions of the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act.
But there were some new provisions that have helped folks…and that takes us to yesterday’s report from the Internal Revenue Service, which shows the average tax refund so far is up more than 10 percent compared with last year.
The average refund check is $3,676…an increase of $352 from a year ago.
That number will slide a bit; after all, it was larger at this time last month, as those who expect a big refund usually file right away…and those who have less incentive to file early often file closer to the deadline.
But Republicans are right to point out that it’s the largest average refund in decades, and to claim credit for it.
We’ll see how that tips the electoral scale come November.
