In our January Issue "HE/SHE THAT UNDERSTANDS THE TAX BASICS ALWAYS WIN", we spoke about how comprehending two basic tax fundamentals will assist you in finding out if you will have a tax liability or tax refund at the end of the year. The article was very well-received in our view which is why we were guest on the Flood The Block Radio Show in February to discuss various tax topics and answer questions from callers throughout the District of Columbia area. If you missed the radio show that evening, you can click on the image below to listen (we didn't go on air until 30 minutes after the show started). 

Click on Image to Listen to the Show

Believe it or not, the IRS is waiting for one million people that didn't file in 2008 that totals one billion dollars in refunds which is currently sitting in the U.S. Treasury vault with half of these refunds being worth more than $600. Each year, hundreds of thousands tax payers don't file their tax returns because some of their income was low enough that they weren't required to file. But if they had taxes withheld from their wages, they could still be owed a refund. The affected individuals have until April 17th to file a return and claim the refunds, below you can find a few states we serve clients in that currently have unclaimed refunds for the 2008 period:

*ALL MEDIAN REFUND AMOUNTS ARE POTENTIAL AMOUNTS 

The IRS publishes annual statistics about individual and business income that includes data files compiled from samples of tax and information returns filed with the IRS. I routinely look at the trends in the data to gauge how the average consumer in the economy is doing. Today, I thought it would be interesting to share a few data points to keep my clients and potential clients informed. For 2009, 144,103,375 individual tax returns were filed (which is slightly up from 2008 levels of 142 million). Within the 144 million individual tax returns filed:

• Median adjusted gross income was $33,048.00
• 78% or 111.7 million of the 144 million individual tax returns filed received a tax refund
• Average refund was $2,902.00 and the total refunds issued were $324.1 billion for 2009
• Only 24.8 million or 17% of tax returns filed included the Earned Income Credit

What conclusions can be drawn from the above bullets about tax statistics? Looking at the data tells me that some of our clients are slightly above the median adjusted gross income of the average taxpayer in the country. Only 22% of the taxpayers that filed their taxes that year had to pay the U.S. Treasury. It's likely that 80% or more of the $324.1 billion poured into the economy at once during the tax season which allows for stronger economic data and possible one-time reductions in consumer debt levels. Lastly, 16% of the total refunds issued included some form of the Earned Income Credit (worth $50.7 billion) which is considerably huge when you're speaking about one credit out of dozens that can be claimed on an individual tax return. Take the bullets and see how you compare to the average taxpayer.