Money Management International's 2007
Tax Survey Results

Tax Time Survey Results
Over withholding:

• More than half (58%) of Americans expect a tax refund this year and 17% don’t know if they’ll get one. By comparison, 74% of taxpayers actually received a refund in 2006.
• People may underestimate the amount of their tax refund. Survey respondents expect to receive an average of $1,641; the average refund paid by the IRS in 2006 was $2,264.
• Somewhat contrary to recent news stories about negative savings rates, nearly one third (32%) plan to save their refund.
• Nearly half (46%) plan to use their refund to pay obligations like debts or car repairs.
• One of the primary reasons respondents expect a refund is purposeful over withholding (26%).

Under withholding:

• An IRS repayment plan will be the method of payment for 21% of surveyed taxpayers who expect to owe.
• Taxpayers not expecting a refund think they’ll have to pay $1,133 more in taxes.
• More than one third (34%) of those who expect to owe do not know how they will pay.
• The majority (60%) of those who expect to owe taxes this year do not plan to make any changes in ’07 to try and “come out even.”

Just for fun:

• More Gemini, Libra and Scorpios over-withhold on purpose.
• More Cancers, Scorpios, and Sagittarians don’t know how much to withhold.
• Libras expect the largest refunds ($2200) and most of them plan to use it to pay debts.

The MMI tax refund survey was conducted in February 2007 by Knowledge-Based Marketing. There were a total of 1,048 respondents. Results were weighted by demographics so they are representative of the US population as a whole.

More tax tidbits:

• Taxpayers will have extra time to file and pay because April 15 falls on a Sunday in 2007, and the following day, Monday, April 16, is Emancipation Day, a legal holiday in the District of Columbia. This means the entire country has an April 17 deadline. View Source
• More than 100 million Americans receive a tax refund annually. View Source
• The IRS returned more than $219 billion in 2003. View Source
• Most taxpayers file well in advance of the deadline. In fact, less than 15% of taxpayers wait until April. View Source