Eight of the 10 states with the lowest average tax refund border Canada. You can now submit your tax return and wait for your refund.
Last year, $324 billion was sent back to taxpayers from the IRS. Nearly eight out of 10 taxpayers received a tax refund worth an average of $2,895.
SmartAsset analyzed 2016 data from the IRS to find the average tax refund by state and in Washington, DC. To do so, they looked at the total income tax refund for each state and divided it by the number of refunds in that state.
Maine was the lowest state on the list with an average tax refund of $2,302, while Texas had the highest with an average of $3,133. Northern states may be more likely to receive smaller tax refunds - eight of the 10 states with the lowest refunds share a border with Canada.
California - the most populous state in America - led the way with the most refunds and largest total refund number, but missed the top 10 in terms of average refund, coming in at number 13 on the list. Wyoming - the least populous state - had the fewest number of refunds, but residents of the state had the 11th highest average tax refund in the US.
Getting a smaller tax refund may be a smart move, according to Lauren Lyons Cole, a senior editor at Business Insider and a certified financial planner. She says that overpaying your tax bill by withholding too much from your paycheck is basically an interest-free loan to the government.
Scroll through to see how much the average person gets back in every state, ordered from biggest refund to the smallest. We also included the total overall amount of tax refunds in each state, rounded for simplicity sake, as well as the number of tax refunds received.
Next Slide
1/52 SLIDES © Shutterstock
The size of your tax refund depends on where you live
You can now submit your tax return and wait for your refund.
Last year, the IRS sent $324 billion back to taxpayers. Nearly eight out of 10 received a tax refund worth an average of $2,895.
SmartAsset analyzed 2016 data from the IRS to find the average tax refund in each state and Washington, DC. To do so, it looked at the total income tax refund for each state and divided it by the number of refunds there.
Maine had the lowest average tax refund, with $2,302, while Texas had the highest, with an average of $3,133. Northern states were more likely to receive smaller tax refunds - eight of the 10 states with the lowest refunds share a border with Canada.
California, the most populous state in America, led the way with the most refunds and largest total amount in refunds but missed the top 10 in average refunds, coming in at No. 13. Wyoming, the least populous, had the fewest refunds, but residents had the 11th-highest average tax refund.
Getting a smaller tax refund may be a smart move, says Lauren Lyons Cole, a senior editor at Business Insider and a certified financial planner. She says that overpaying your tax bill by withholding too much from your paycheck is basically an interest-free loan to the government.
Scroll through to see how much the average person gets back in every state, ordered from the biggest refund to the smallest. We also included the (rounded) total amount in tax refunds in each state and the number of tax refunds received.