Federal Tax Payments And Refunds: How Do Yours Stack Up?

BARROW, GA — The IRS has delayed the tax filing deadline again this year, to May 17, but that doesn’t mean taxes aren’t very much on the public mind these days.

If you're wondering how your tax bill stacks up against those of your neighbors, the IRS has a lot of information to share. Each year, the agency provides a wealth of data, broken down by state and county, about the number and type of returns filed, the typical payments and refunds, and how many taxpayers fall into specific income groups. The most recent available figures are for the 2018 tax year.

In Barrow County, 27,590 filers got an average refund of $2,682. The figures include all individual filing types, including singly, jointly and as heads of household.

The average individual refund in the United States was around $2,900, according to the IRS.

Another 340 filers put an average of $19,529 toward tax liabilities in the following year.

The 7,240 filers in Barrow County who still owed the IRS paid an average of $3,564 for 2018.

Georgia

In Georgia, 3,372,670 filers got an average refund of $3,049.

Another 79,370 applied an average of $21,328 to taxes in the following tax year.

There were 1,019,480 filers who owed the IRS an average of $5,025.

The IRS also provides the number of filers in eight categories of adjusted gross income, which includes wages, capital gains and other types of income minus, certain deductions including student loan interest payments, alimony and other items.

Barrow County breakdown:

• Under $1: 410
• $1 to under $10,000: 4,550
• $10,000 to under $25,000: 7,840
• $25,000 to under $50,000: 9,740
• $50,000 to under $75,000: 5,880
• $75,000 to under $100,000: 3,430
• $100,000 to under $200,000: 3,470
• $200,000 or more: 660

Georgia breakdown:

• Under $1: 59,360
• $1 to under $10,000: 582,720
• $10,000 to under $25,000: 1,098,710
• $25,000 to under $50,000: 1,091,940
• $50,000 to under $75,000: 596,640
• $75,000 to under $100,000: 369,330
• $100,000 to under $200,000: 557,900
• $200,000 or more: 223,640

About 87 percent of filers across the U.S. took the standard deduction in tax year 2018, while 11.4 percent filed itemized deductions, according to the IRS. About 9.4 percent of filers in Barrow County and 13.8 percent of Georgia filers itemized deductions in 2018.

The number of filers who took the standard deduction grew sharply in tax year 2018, owing mostly to the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, which increased the standard deduction from $6,500 to $12,000 for individuals and from $13,000 to $24,000 for joint returns in 2018. About 69 percent of filers had used the standard deduction in tax year 2016.

The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act also capped the total amount of state and local taxes (SALT) that can be claimed at $10,000 and also made changes to the mortgage interest deduction.

The percentage of taxpayers who had a tax benefit from SALT deductions decreased from 25 percent in 2017 to 10 percent in 2018, according to the Tax Policy Center. The mortgage interest deduction benefitted 20 percent of filers in 2017, but only 8 percent in 2018.

The IRS notes that data doesn’t represent the full U.S. population, because many people aren’t required to file individual income tax returns. Returns filed without a ZIP Code or with a ZIP Code that didn’t match the state were excluded from county data. The figures represent returned filed and processed by the IRS and not any amended returns.

Editor's note: This post was automatically generated using data from the IRS. Please report any errors or other feedback to [email protected].