Americans receiving $20 Billion less in Tax Refunds

(Washington, DC) -- As tax filing season comes to a close, Americans are seeing smaller refunds this year.

The IRS said it has processed around 69 million refunds through April 7th this year for a total of nearly 199-billion dollars. That's around 23-billion dollars less than last year's total of just over 222-billion dollars.

The average refund check this year has been worth just under 29-hundred dollars, a nine-percent drop from last year's average of a little more than 33-hundred dollars.

A recent Bankrate survey found around 75-percent of adults believe their tax refund this year is important to their financial situation.