WASHINGTON, D.C. – April 15th, or Tax Day, is right around the corner. For those who have filed already, you’ve might have received a larger refund than last year.
Tax experts with the Tax Foundation said on average, some people are getting $350 more in refunds than last year. That number could be higher for others. Garrett Watson, the director of policy analysis at the Tax Foundation, said the One Big Beautiful Bill’s measure made the 2017 tax cuts permanent but also extended additional tax cuts for 2025 including for overtime income, tipped income, for seniors over 65, auto loan interests and more.
Of course, how much you get in return varies for each person but we’re told the deductions were put in place halfway through last year so the IRS didn’t make adjustments to withholdings for this season. We asked Watson if people could see additional elevated returns for next filing season.
“I would expect them to remain elevated compared to last year, maybe a bit this year,” said Watson. “We’re still waiting to see where these elevated refunds this year really end because they do change over the tax season, so it might be a little bit lower or a little bit higher than the current numbers especially because the Treasury Department said they have a lot of remaining returns with a lot of overtime deductions. That one seems to be a highlight where they’re seeing more claims for overtime deductions than they were expecting.”
Watson also adds they’ve noticed some challenges for people to get their returns if they did not put down their direct deposit information when they filed. They said the Trump Administration is moving away from paper check refunds and more towards direct deposit. Watson said it could take up to six weeks to get a paper check if you did not put your direct deposit information when filing.
