Income Tax deadline extension: On Tax day, are tax payers really receiving IRS refunds of $5,000, $8,000, $11,000? Here's reality check

Income Tax deadline Day is here for the most Americans to file taxes. More than 53 million filers claimed a deduction under one of those provisions from Republicans' massive tax and spending law. Six million people claimed no tax on tips, 21 million claimed the overtime deduction and 30 million older Americans claiming the enhanced deduction, as per AP report.

In an interview that aired on Wednesday, President Donald Trump claimed much bigger results. “People are getting refunds of $5,000, $8,000, $11,000 that they had no idea they were getting,” he told Fox Business News. “It’s turned out to be better -- as good or better than I said it would be.” Treasury says tax refunds this season are up 24 per cent compared with the four-year average of refunds before Trump took office.

Still, the latest data comes as most Americans, or 7 in 10, still think their taxes are too high, according to recent polling, despite the passage of the Republican tax law which promised big savings for taxpayers, as per the AP report.


As the tax season kicked off in January, the White House boasted that average refunds were projected to rise by at least $1,000. But currently, the average refund amount is $3,462, according to the latest IRS data, which is up 11 per cent or about $350 from last tax year’s $3,116 average refund payment.

The White House has been trying to promote Trump's tax cuts as a way to get voters more enthusiastic about the way he's handling the economy before November's midterm elections, but the message has been overshadowed for weeks by higher gas prices caused by the war in Iran.

The 2026 season comes as the IRS has gone through a leadership turnover and reduced its workforce by 27% over the past year through cuts brought on by the Department of Government Efficiency.

IRS CEO Frank Bisignano testified to the Senate Finance Committee on Wednesday, extolling the IRS' implementation of the Republican tax law.

However, Democratic lawmakers have been zeroing in on IRS disclosures of confidential taxpayer information to Immigration and Customs Enforcement as part of an agreement between ICE and the Department of Homeland Security to share information for the purpose of identifying and deporting people illegally in the U.S.