Did Tax Reform Really Shrink Your Refund?
It's been nearly two years since the federal government made major changes to the tax laws. At the time, some feared that despite providing tax savings for millions of Americans, the size of tax refunds could shrink for a significant number of people. As late-filing taxpayers finally get around to filing their returns by the Oct. 15 deadline, just about everyone will now have a sense of exactly what impact tax changes had on their own financial situations.
Early on, it looked as though tax refunds might be smaller in 2019 than they'd been in past years. As it turned out, though, it looks as though the final tally will have only modest declines in most tax refund metrics. That doesn't change the fact that some people took significant tax hits under the new laws, but it does suggest that on the whole, the legislation did lower tax bills.
The early data on refunds scared many taxpayers. In early February, average refund figures were coming in below the $2,000 mark, and that led some to fear that that trend would continue throughout the course of tax season. Despite reassurances from the Treasury Department that tax refund amounts would likely bounce back as more taxpayers actually filed their returns, the prevailing sentiment among taxpayers was a lot less confident.
Source Fool.com
