Money · Facts & sources
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.
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
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
AnswerCalifornia
California led, followed by Texas and New York, largely reflecting population and income.
Source: IRS Data Book, FY2025 (Publication 55B) (2025) irs.gov
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
AnswerMexico (18.3%)
Mexico's ratio was less than half of top-ranked Denmark's 45.2%.
Source: OECD, Revenue Statistics 2025 (2024) oecd.org
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