Americans who collected jobless benefits last year and filed taxes early are starting to receive their refunds.
The Internal Revenue Service said this week that it has processed refunds for 2.8 million people who paid tax on unemployment compensation. These are people who filed returns before mid-March, when the American Rescue Plan made some unemployment benefits nontaxable.
At the same time, the IRS increased its estimate of people who could be in line for tax refunds because they filed taxes before the law changed. About 13 million Americans may be eligible, the agency said on Friday, up from the 10 million it estimated late last month.
Not everyone who may be eligible for a tax refund will get the money, the IRS cautioned. “Some will receive refunds, which will be issued periodically, and some will have the overpayment applied to taxes due or other debts,” it said.
Single filers first, then married couples
The first batch of tax refunds went out to single people without dependents, whose tax returns are the simplest. The IRS said that married couples and heads of household — taxpayers who claim children or other dependents — will wait longer to see tax refunds.
The next set of refunds will come in “mid-June,” the agency said, adding: “The review of returns and processing corrections will continue during the summer as the IRS continues to review the simplest returns and then turns to more complex returns.”