Even though the 2025 tax season has only been open less than two full weeks, the IRS has already been busy processing tax returns and issuing tax refunds.
Not mine — I’m still a ways away from sitting down with my W-2 forms and the 1040 instructions and a calculator and all that. But millions of Americans have already jumped right in. The sooner you file, the sooner you get that refund, right? At least I hope so.
There’ve been some unexpected concerns this year. In late January, US President Donald Trump announced a hiring freeze for the federal civilian workforce. This hiring freeze applies to government agencies, including the IRS — right ahead of tax season. That shouldn’t impact the timeline of processing returns and issuing refunds, but we’ll know better in time.
Here’s a breakdown of how the IRS is doing so far this tax season.
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How many tax returns has the IRS processed so far in 2025?
On Friday, the IRS released initial statistics comparing the end of January 2025 with early February 2024. As of Feb. 7, 2025, the IRS has processed 11.7 million federal income tax returns, down by 15.8% from the 13.9 million it processed in early February of last year.
The IRS had also received 13.1 million tax returns total as of Feb. 7 as compared with 15.3 million at this point last year, marking a 14% decrease.
The agency also breaks down how returns have been filed, with 12.8 million returns received electronically (4.3 million filed by tax professionals and 8.5 million self-prepared).
How many tax refunds has the IRS issued so far in 2025?
The IRS has issued more than 3.2 million refunds as of Feb. 7, ahead 23.5% from the approximate 2.6 million sent out at this point in February 2024.
So far, the average tax refund amount is $1,928, which is up 38.2% from last year’s average of $1,395.
How do 2025’s tax refunds stack up to 2024’s so far?
While the average refund size is up so far compared with the same time last year, the total number of tax returns received and processed by the IRS is down.
The IRS noted that large percentage differences in filing statistics are typical for the beginning of each tax season. The numbers will even out as more people — like me — gather important tax documents and file in the coming weeks.