5 things you need to know about: Your 2009 tax returns

By Jennifer Davies, UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
Saturday, March 27, 2010 at 12:04 a.m.

It’s that time of year where you either feel smug because you’ve already filed your taxes or you’re a bit sheepish because you haven’t even opened up your W-2. But with only 20 days left to procrastinate, here are some statistics to get you motivated:

State refunds. The good news is the state has no plans to issue those cool IOUs that it sent out sent out last year. So if you’re due a refund, you’ll get your moneys. The bad news is that so far the average refund is down, coming in at $610 compared to $698 for tax year 2008. By the way, if you file electronically, you can get the cash within a week. The paper route more to your liking? Well, then hopefully waiting is, too, because it could take as long as six weeks to get your refund.

State filers.Typically, California receives about 15 million personal tax filings. As of March 24, the state has received about 7.6 million filings — with 6.4 million of those filed electronically. The take-away? If you haven’t filed yet, don’t feel too bad, because you have plenty of company.

Federal refunds.According to its most recent numbers, the IRS has issued about 58.8 million refunds worth about $175.4 billion. Last year, the U.S. Treasury paid out $320 billion in refunds to 78 percent of all filers. So far, the average refund for this year is $3,036, which is up almost 10 percent from last year, when the average refund was $2,770. If that’s not a reason to get cracking on those taxes, we don’t know what is.

Federal filers. To date, about 68.7 million folks have filed their taxes and 56.8 million of those have been filed electronically. But apparently we are not a nation of do-it-yourselfers, as tax professionals accounted for 63 percent of those e-filings.

More money. As you struggle with your tax forms, consider this: The IRS has more than $150 million in unclaimed refunds for California taxpayers from 2006. The catch is that after three years those unclaimed funds becomes the property of the U.S. Treasury — so you need to act fast and file a 2006 return by April 15.

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