IRS: Refund checks down 8% compared to last year

WASHINGTON, D.C. (Fox 32 News) - Think your refund is going up this year? You may want to think again. New IRS data released on Friday shows that the average refund check is down 8.4 percent compared to last year.

The IRS reports that the average refund distributed so far this tax season has been $1,865. That is an 8.4 percent drop compared to last year's average refund of $2,035.

The rate that returns are being processed is also way down. The total number of returns processed so far this tax season is 13,306,000. That is a 25.8 percent drop from last year at this time.

The total amount refunded so far this year is $8.713 billion. That's a steep decline from $12.560 billion last year at this time.

In a tweet on Monday, the Treasury said so far this year refunds are in line with 2017 levels – even if lower when compared with last year.

The tweet read: "News reports on reduction in IRS filings & refunds are misleading. Refunds are consistent with 2017 levels and down slightly from 2018 based on a small initial sample from only a few days of data."

You can see these statistics and more on the official Internal Revenue Service website by clicking here.

This story was reported from Chicago.