Average income tax refund so far: about $3,000

The IRS has already handed out tens of millions of income tax refunds, and the average refund amount is about $3,000.IRS Commissioner Douglas Shulman told a House subcommittee Thursday that the IRS had received more than 70 million individual tax returns as of March 10, up about 5 percent from the same time last year.Shulman said the IRS had issued 59.2 million refunds as of March 10, for a total

March 22, 2012, 6:01 PM UTC

By Allison Linn and Allison Linn

The IRS has already handed out tens of millions of income tax refunds, and the average refund amount is about $3,000.

IRS Commissioner Douglas Shulman told a House subcommittee Thursday that the IRS had received more than 70 million individual tax returns as of March 10, up about 5 percent from the same time last year.

Shulman said the IRS had issued 59.2 million refunds as of March 10, for a total of $174 billion.

The $3,000 refunds are about the same as last year, according to Shulman’s testimony before a Ways and Means subcommittee.

If you’re more of a procrastinator than an early bird, don’t worry: You still have some time. The tax due datehas been extended to April 17 this year.

For identity theft victims, paying taxes is a nightmare