Will your tax refund be bigger if the IRS is late with the payments?

Your tax refund will not be bigger if the IRS is late with the payments. The amount of your tax refund is determined by the tax return you filed, and the IRS processing and paying your refund late does not change the amount of your refund.

It’s important to note that the IRS may pay interest on late refunds, but this interest is based on the amount of time that has passed since the original filing deadline, not on the amount of time the IRS took to process and pay your refund. Additionally, there are limits on the amount of interest that the IRS is required to pay, and not all late refunds qualify for interest payments.

How large have refunds been so far this year?

The average refund for the 2021 season was, at this stage, $2,201. In comparison, so far for the 2022 season it is $1,963, a 10.8% decrease.

The reduction has been put down by many as a reaction to the ending of the extra support offered during the covid-19 pandemic, such as the Child Tax Credit and other tax credits.

Nearly 8 million people have already received a refund, more than twice the amount of mid-February at the same time last year. The total amount of money refunded at this point has increased by about two-thirds, from $9.5 billion last year to nearly $16 billion this year.

“People should absolutely expect smaller tax refunds this year. And frankly, some people might even owe the government money,” financial expert Lynnette Khalfani-Cox told NPR.