Section 1 of the IRS Data Book provides a broad overview of the main functions performed by the IRS: processing Federal tax returns and collecting revenue. It also provides additional details on returns filed, returns filed electronically, gross collections, and tax refunds by State and type of tax.

Graphic shows the number of returns filed by return type for fiscal year 2023. Of the 271.5 million total returns and other forms filed, 213 million of these were filed electronically.

View chart details XLSX. For additional graphs from this section, download the PDF of this year’s Data Book PDF.

Highlights of the data

  • Individual income tax withheld and tax payments, combined, totaled almost $2.6 trillion before re­funds (Tables 1 XLSX and 6 XLSX).
  • The IRS also collected nearly $457.0 billion in income taxes, before re­funds, from businesses in FY 2023 Tables 1 XLSX and 6 XLSX).
  • More than 213.3 million returns and other forms were filed electronically. These represented 78.6 percent of all filings. For individual tax returns, 90.7 percent were filed electronically (Table 4 XLSX).
  • The IRS issued 120.9 million refunds to individuals in FY 2023, amounting to more than $461.2 billion (Tables 7 XLSX and 8 XLSX).
  • In FY 2023, more than 15.7 million tax refunds included a refundable child tax credit and nearly 22.4 million included a refundable earned income tax credit (Table 7 XLSX).

Index of Data Book Tables

Returns filed, taxes collected and refunds issued: Tables 1–8

Table 1: Collections and Refunds, by Type of Tax, Fiscal Years 2022 and 2023 XLSX
Table 2: Number of Returns and Other Forms Filed, by Type, Fiscal Years 2022 and 2023 XLSX
Table 3: Number of Returns and Other Forms Filed, by Type and State, Fiscal Year 2023 XLSX
Table 4: Number of Returns and Other Forms Filed Electronically, by Type and State, Fiscal Year 2023 XLSX
Table 5: Gross Collections, by Type of Tax and State, Fiscal Year 2023 XLSX
Table 6: Gross Collections, by Type of Tax, Fiscal Years 1960–2023 XLSX
Table 7: Number of Refunds Issued, by Type of Refund and State, Fiscal Year 2023 XLSX
Table 8: Amount of Refunds Issued, Including Interest, by Type of Refund and State, Fiscal Year 2023 XLSX

Data for all years


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