The U.S. Internal Revenue Service (IRS) paid out $43 billion more in tax refunds in 2026 than the year before, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) said in an August report. Their total amount was $296 billion, and the average payment increased by $333.
Tax refunds in the United States are available to US citizens, permanent residents (green card holders), and some foreign workers and students if they are subject to excess taxes during the fiscal year or have certain benefits (for example, parental benefits).
To receive your refund, you are required by law to file Form 1040, the main tax document in the United States, by the end of tax season in April. It shows income, deductions and other information, which is then verified by the Internal Revenue Service.
As GAO noted at the end of the last fiscal year, 8 million more taxpayers received tax refunds than in 2025. The average tax refund payment in 2026 was $3,275, up from $2,942 the year before.
Accounting Chamber experts associated an increase in refund amounts by an average of 11% with the new tax policy of Republican President Donald Trump. Congress's One Big Beautiful Bill, which included measures such as the tip tax repeal and the overtime tax repeal, made a difference, the report said.
The IRS also this year switched to mostly refunding overpayments through direct deposits into people's accounts, the report's authors noted. Those who did not provide details on time received refunds in the form of a check, but with a delay.
The GAO believes the delays were due to a reduction in the number of employees in the relevant IRS department, many of whom accepted the offer to resign. The Trump administration sent it to more than 2 million government employees in 2025.
The letter, titled “Fork in the Road,” became part of the new president’s policy of cutting government and budget spending, in which billionaire Elon Musk also played a leading role.
