A quick glance at the latest 2025 tax refund numbers may be cause for concern for those who haven’t filed yet, but the Internal Revenue Service says there’s a good reason why certain numbers are down.

Taxpayers with overdue federal student loan payments, or other federal debts owed to government agencies, may also have their tax refunds reduced by their owed amounts. Those who owe money in state taxes could see their federal refunds reduced or wiped out in order to pay off their state-level debts.

Tax season is here again in the United States and as millions of Americans file their 2024 taxes with the Internal Revenue Service, one of the questions most often asked is “Where is my refund?” The 2025 season officially kicked off January 27 and the IRS expects more than 140 million tax returns to be filed by the April 15 tax deadline.