Tax Refunds and Filing Updates for 2025

The tax deadline is coming up on April 15th, and it looks like more households are expecting refunds this year compared to last. Still, the average refund amount isn’t quite what the Trump administration had hoped for.

According to the latest data from the IRS, around 140,222,000 income tax returns were filed by the week ending April 17. This is actually a slight dip from last year’s filings during the same time frame.

Out of those over 140 million submissions, about 65%, which equals roughly 90.41 million, are set to receive refunds. That’s an increase from 86.02 million refunds by the end of last tax season.

Refunds can arise for various reasons—such as individual circumstances or changes in tax law—sometimes it’s a bit of both.

Two main policy factors seem to have contributed to the increase in refunds this year.

First, there have been new tax breaks and expansions for 2025, like enhanced itemized deductions for state and local taxes, new deductions for tips and overtime, and improved deductions for taxpayers aged 65 and over.

As of April 14, the U.S. Treasury noted that over 25 million filers claimed the new overtime deduction. More than 6 million utilized the tip deduction, over 1 million applied for car loan interest deductions, and around 30 million took advantage of the more generous senior citizen deductions.

The second reason is that the IRS did not revise the withholding schedule after implementing these tax law changes in July of 2025. This oversight likely led many salaried workers to have more tax withheld than what they actually owed between July and December.

As of April 17, the total amount refunded by the IRS has reached $296.067 billion, which is a 17% increase from last year’s figure of $253.116 billion for the same timeframe.

The average refund amount per filer stands at $3,275—a rise of $333 from last year’s average of $2,942 at this point. However, it still falls short of the $1,000 estimate the Treasury anticipated earlier this year.

Interestingly, there are about 4.4 million more filers receiving refunds this year compared to those who received them last tax season.

It’s worth noting that the average refund amount may fluctuate as the IRS completes processing the remaining 2025 returns submitted now through the end of December, especially those from taxpayers who applied for a six-month extension.

For example, last year’s average refund by the end of December was $3,167, which was higher than this year’s April 18 figure of $2,942.

If history is any indication, we might see the average refund for the 2025 tax year increase somewhat by December 31.