The early tax filing data released by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) in the United States shows that the average tax refund amount for the current tax season so far is 10.9% higher than the same period in 2025.
The IRS began processing federal income tax returns for 2025 on January 26. According to data released by the agency last weekend, as of February 6, the average tax refund amount is $2,290, which is higher than the $2,065 around a year ago.
According to the IRS announcement, as of February 6, the total amount of refunds exceeded $16.9 billion, an increase of 1.9% from last year.
However, this tax season started off slowly, with the IRS receiving 22.35 million returns as of February 6, a decrease of 5.2% compared to the number in the first two weeks of the tax season last year.
The number of early tax filings processed by the IRS has also decreased by 12.3% compared to the same period last year. In the first two weeks of this year’s tax season until February 6, the IRS processed 20.623 million individual income tax returns. This is lower than the 23.515 million returns processed in the first two weeks of the previous tax season until February 7, 2025.
As of February 6, the IRS has issued 7.403 million refunds. However, this is an 8.1% decrease compared to the 8.054 million refunds issued during the same period last year.
Although these data only cover a small portion of a longer tax season, as federal officials had predicted earlier, due to revisions made to tax laws by the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” signed by President Trump in July of last year, Americans are expected to receive the highest tax refunds ever in 2026.
US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent had previously told the media in December last year that Americans would receive “a very large amount of tax refunds.” The preliminary statistics released by the IRS last Friday, February 13, have confirmed this.
Bessent, in an interview earlier last Friday with CNBC’s “Squawk Box” program, stated that the refund amounts have increased by 22%. However, it is unclear the duration of tax returns processed reflected in his data or what comparison period he used. Typically, the IRS releases more refund data weekly during the tax season.
In a report released on February 13, the IRS stated that they expect to “continue to see a strong filing season with refunds continuing to reach taxpayers as planned.”
The IRS also mentioned that many taxpayers were still waiting for important tax documents until the end of January, so the agency expects the number of tax filings to catch up in the coming weeks as these documents are all in place.