--- title: IRS Warns Tax ‘Refunds May Be Smaller in 2023’ description: The IRS says that tax refunds could be smaller in 2023, mostly because there were no new stimulus checks from the government this year. authors: - name: Adam Hardy role: Lead Data Reporter url: https://money.com/author/adam-hardy/ bio: Adam Hardy is a lead data journalist at Money, where he frequently reports on financial barriers that affect low-income Americans. Adam’s work has also appeared in Business Insider, Forbes, Nasdaq, The Penny Hoarder, Yahoo! Finance and more than a dozen local and regional newspapers. education: University of South Florida, BA, Magazine Journalism at_money_since: 2021 articles: 501 covers: - Taxes - Banking - Business - Career Advice - Credit - Credit Cards - Debt - Economy and Politics - Education - Health and Wellness - Housing - Identity Theft - Insurance - Investing - Lifestyle - Loans - Mortgages - Personal Finance - Pets - Professional Services - Retirement - Shopping - Technology also_seen_in: - The Penny Hoarder - Forbes Advisor - Creative Loafing - The New York Times - The Washington Post - Bloomberg - Harvard Law School - The Federal Register - National Consumer Law Center - CBS News - Becker's Hospital Review - Business Insider - Mother Jones - The Week - Fortune - The Philadelphia Inquirer - National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators (NAFSAA) - Education Advisory Board (EAB) - The Institute for College Access & Success (TICAS) - This Morning with Gordon Deal - Empower - Reddit social: - https://www.x.com/hardyjournalism - https://www.linkedin.com/in/hardyjournalism/ editors: - name: Brad Tuttle role: Senior Editor url: https://money.com/author/brad-tuttle/ bio: Brad Tuttle is a former senior editor at Money with over 10 years’ experience covering a vast number of personal finance topics, including careers, cars, travel, budgeting, investing, insurance, credit cards, consumer psychology, real estate, banking, and shopping and deals. education: Columbia University School of Journalism, MS at_money_since: 2014 articles: 366 covers: - Taxes - Banking - Business - Career Advice - Credit - Credit Cards - Economy and Politics - Education - Health and Wellness - Housing - Identity Theft - Insurance - Investing - Lifestyle - Loans - Mortgages - Personal Finance - Pets - Professional Services - Retirement - Shopping - Technology social: - https://twitter.com/bradrtuttle - https://linkedin.com/in/brad-tuttle-834b225 former_staff: true published: '2022-11-28T18:05:55.000Z' modified: '2024-01-10T17:45:05.000Z' section: Taxes tags: - News - Taxes word_count: 652 canonical: https://money.com/irs-warns-tax-refunds-smaller-2023/ type: NewsArticle source: structured-blocks --- > **Disclosure:** We research all brands listed and may earn a fee from our partners. Research and financial considerations may influence how brands are displayed. Not all brands are included. [Learn more](https://money.com/page/disclaimer/). ![Hand Pulling A Miniature US Treasury Fund Refund Check Out Of Envelope](https://img.money.com/2022/11/News-Tax-Refund-Smaller-Next-Year.jpg) When you file your taxes in 2023, don’t be surprised if your tax refund is a bit smaller than it was this year. In an [announcement](https://www.irs.gov/newsroom/get-ready-now-to-file-your-2022-federal-income-tax-return) Tuesday encouraging taxpayers to prepare for the upcoming tax season, the IRS warned folks to temper their expectations for their next tax refund. “Refunds may be smaller in 2023,” the IRS said. “Taxpayers will not receive an additional stimulus payment with a 2023 tax refund because there were no Economic Impact Payments for 2022.” The government began sending out the last official round of federal stimulus checks — aka Economic Impact Payments — in 2021. But because many eligible folks did not directly receive their stimulus checks that year, they were able to [claim the amount](https://money.com/claim-stimulus-check-money-taxes/) they were owed when they [filed taxes](https://money.com/how-to-file-taxes-for-free/) in 2022. That [boosted the tax refunds for millions of Americans](https://money.com/tax-refunds-higher-this-year/) much higher than usual. There was not another round of stimulus checks in 2022, so that situation won’t happen again. ## Who gets a tax refund? What's the average amount? IRS data shows the average tax refund paid out earlier this year was indeed much higher than previous years. For example, the average refund in 2022 was $3,176, nearly a 14% increase from the previous year’s refund of $2,791. In 2020, the average refund was about $2,550. While not all tax filers receive refunds, most do. Of those who filed in 2022, two-thirds received a tax refund from the IRS, agency data shows. Although [millions heavily depend on refund checks](https://money.com/tax-refunds-extra-important-inflation/) each year, the IRS advises against that strategy. “The IRS cautions taxpayers not to rely on receiving a 2022 federal tax refund by a certain date especially when making major purchases or paying bills,” the agency stated. “Some returns may require additional review and may take longer.” In fact, the agency is still processing millions of tax returns. The IRS said it is still working on 3.7 million unprocessed returns that it received this year. Many of them contained errors, the agency said. Overall, the IRS was plagued by processing delays and poor customer service this year, according to a report from [the National Taxpayer Advocate](https://www.irs.gov/newsroom/national-taxpayer-advocate-issues-midyear-report-to-congress-expresses-concern-about-continued-refund-delays-and-poor-taxpayer-service), an internal IRS watchdog. While the IRS no longer has to deal with pumping out tens of millions of stimulus payments, a new rule enacted by the American Rescue Plan is in effect for the upcoming tax season. The rule affects many folks with side hustles who use third-party payment services like PayPal or Venmo — or sites like Facebook Marketplace, Ebay or Etsy. In short, those companies are now required to [send out 1099-K forms](https://money.com/tax-1099-k-600-ebay-etsy/) to anyone who used their platform to sell more than $600 worth of goods or services (gifts or personal payments do not apply). Previously, the threshold was either 200 transactions or $20,000. Folks who did not meet that threshold in previous years were still supposed to report their income to the IRS, but tax experts say many people don’t know that they’re supposed to file — or in some cases ignore that requirement — if they don’t receive documentation. Now, that new documentation is coming, and many will be filing taxes on their side hustles for the first time. This too could contribute to a lower tax refund for certain filers — and if the returns contain errors, that could in turn create further delays with the IRS. To prevent another massive backlog from happening next year, the [IRS is on a hiring spree](https://money.com/irs-funding-higher-taxes-more-audits/). The agency said at the end of October that it has already hired [4,000 new customer service staffers](https://www.irs.gov/newsroom/irs-quickly-moves-forward-with-taxpayer-service-improvements-4000-hired-to-provide-more-help-to-people-during-2023-tax-season-on-phones) and plans to add another 1,000 by the end of year. To increase your chances of a speedy return, the IRS recommends that you file electronically and sign up for direct deposit. ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "BreadcrumbList", "@id": "https://money.com/irs-warns-tax-refunds-smaller-2023/#breadcrumb", "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "name": "Home", "item": "https://money.com" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "name": "Taxes", "item": "https://money.com/taxes/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 3, "name": "Tax Refund", "item": "https://money.com/tax-refund/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 4, "name": "IRS Warns Tax ‘Refunds May Be Smaller in 2023’" } ] }, { "@type": "WebSite", "@id": "https://money.com/#website", "url": "https://money.com", "name": "Money", "publisher": { "@id": "https://money.com/#organization" } }, { "@type": "WebPage", "@id": "https://money.com/irs-warns-tax-refunds-smaller-2023/#webpage", "url": "https://money.com/irs-warns-tax-refunds-smaller-2023/", "name": "IRS Warns Tax ‘Refunds May Be Smaller in 2023’", "isPartOf": { "@id": "https://money.com/#website" }, "datePublished": "2022-11-28T18:05:55.000Z", "mainEntity": { "@id": "https://money.com/irs-warns-tax-refunds-smaller-2023/" }, "inLanguage": "en-US", "breadcrumb": { "@id": "https://money.com/irs-warns-tax-refunds-smaller-2023/#breadcrumb" }, "dateModified": "2024-01-10T17:45:05.000Z" }, { "@type": "NewsArticle", "headline": "IRS Warns Tax ‘Refunds May Be Smaller in 2023’", "articleSection": "Taxes", "image": [ { "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "https://img.money.com/2022/11/News-Tax-Refund-Smaller-Next-Year.jpg", "width": 2880, "height": 1920, "caption": "News-Tax-Refund-Smaller-Next-Year" } ], "author": [ { "@type": "Person", "name": "Adam Hardy", "url": "https://money.com/author/adam-hardy/", "@id": "https://money.com/author/adam-hardy/#author", "description": "Adam Hardy is a lead data journalist at Money, where he frequently reports on financial barriers that affect low-income Americans. 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