About how much in gross taxes did the IRS collect in fiscal year 2025?
Answer$5.3 trillion
That total is before refunds; the IRS also sent back $638.8 billion in refunds that year.
Source: IRS, SOI Tax Stats – IRS Data Book, FY2025 (2025) irs.gov
Money · Facts & sources
Tax facts & stats
6 sourced facts about taxes, each with the context behind the number. 4 more are in today's round and appear here after it closes.
The basics
What was the average federal tax refund in the 2025 filing season?
Answer$3,167
The IRS sent about 103.8 million refunds during the 2025 filing season, totaling roughly $329 billion.
Source: IRS, Filing season statistics (week ending Dec. 26, 2025) (2025) irs.gov
What share of individual federal tax returns were filed electronically in fiscal 2025?
Answer93.7%
Only about 10.3 million of the 162.8 million individual returns were still filed on paper.
Source: IRS Data Book, FY2025 (Publication 55B) (2025) irs.gov
Going deeper
What was the United States' tax-to-GDP ratio in 2024?
Answer25.6%
That ranked the U.S. 31st of 38 OECD countries; its ratio has fallen from 28.3% in 2000.
Source: OECD, Revenue Statistics 2025: The United States (2024) oecd.org
Expert level
About how many tax return audits did the IRS close in fiscal 2025?
Answer497,621
Those audits resulted in $26.8 billion in recommended additional tax — out of hundreds of millions of returns filed.
Source: IRS, SOI Tax Stats – IRS Data Book, FY2025 (2025) irs.gov
How many returns were filed through the IRS Free File program in fiscal 2025?
Answer3.2 million
By comparison, paid preparers e-filed 86.7 million individual returns that year.
Source: IRS Data Book, FY2025 (Publication 55B) (2025) irs.gov
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