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Today is Tax Day 2022, and if you haven't already done so, you are running out of time to send in those returns with payments or seek an extension.
It's later than normal this year, with the traditional filing date of April 15 being moved to today because Saturday was Emancipation Day (April 16) in Washington, D.C. When that falls on a weekend, the holiday is commemorated on the closest weekday, which was Friday.
That meant, of course, that we all have had a few extra days to file this year. And you are not alone -- more than 160 million tax returns will be filed this year. The majority of those -- 90 percent -- will be filed electronically, which means that this average refund of $3,473 will be returned to taxpayers in about three weeks, instead of the seven weeks those who file by paper will have to wait.
Those numbers were compiled by WalletHub, the Washington-based personal finance website.
If you've waited until now to complete your annual filings, you no doubt will be happy to know that Form 1040 (the standard federal income tax form) now stands at just 38 lines, a big reduction from the 79 lines that were found on the form in 2017. That, however, does not mean the process is any easier.
The average American can expect to spend 13 hours completing his or her return, at an average cost of $240. If you are among the 240 million Americans who have to interact with the Internal Revenue Service this year, know that you likely will spend a lot of time on the telephone -- the average wait time last year was 23 minutes.
One of the biggest fears of anyone who files a tax return is that she or he will be audited. That's unlikely -- there are only about 510,000 audits each year (that's 0.2 percent), and if you do end up facing that scrutiny, it could actually work in your favor -- $7 billion in audit-related additional refunds went to taxpayers in 2020.
Since you're thinking about having to pay the government, consider that Saturday also represented Tax Freedom Day. That's the day, according to the Tax Foundation, when all of the nation's taxes would be paid for the full year (if all the wages earned were going solely into taxes first.) The calculation is made by dividing all the local, state and federal taxes by the nation's income.
It's all something to ponder as you make those final plans to file your return today. And if it makes you sleep any easier, know that if you were able to pay every single one of your taxes for 2022 in one lump sum and you live in our Tri-State Area, you would finally be able to start working for yourself.