The IRS has announced that the 2025 tax filling season for tax year 2024 will open on Monday, January 27. The tax deadline is Tuesday, April 15. The late start of the 2025 tax filing season means there will be 78 days, or about 11 weeks to file. There are no adjustments to the filing date in 2025. The spring holiday of Easter is not until Sunday, April 20. Filers in Massachusetts will not get a day’s grace in filing as the state observance of Patriots Day is not until April 21.
Individual taxpayers with simple returns who anticipate a refund tend to be the first wave of tax filings. Expansion of the IRS Direct File program to 25 states from 12 in 2024 means that more of these tax returns are likely to be filed sooner. In any case, by the third week of the filing season, it is typical to see the size of any tax refunds peak as those eligible for refunds move quickly to get them.
Also typical of early filing is that these are mostly e-filings which means that they arrive sooner and are processed more quickly to get refunds to taxpayers at the earliest date. Moreover, most of these are direct deposits which also speed the process of getting refunds into taxpayers’ bank accounts. The peak size of tax refunds usually occurs in the fourth week of the filing season and declines through the mid-April filing deadline.
Given the relatively late start to the 2025 filing season, tax refunds should start to arrive by the third week in February. This could help boost retail spending in February, but refunds could also be used for debt reduction or go to savings. Substantive impacts from the arrival of refunds will probably be more visible in March when consumers start planning their warm weather activities like gardening and repairing the effects of the winter months on home exteriors, or thinking about family vacations during spring break for school systems.
