Tax & Accounting News

Wondering where your tax refund is?

by
Lee Reams II
on
3/19/2015
Wondering where your tax refund is?

Remember the days when you used to drive to the post office to drop off your tax forms? So many people waited until the last minute on April 15th that several of the biggest post offices in the country would station employees outside, ready to collect them and postmark them on the spot, and marketers from over-the-counter pain relief products like Excedrin and Alka Seltzer would be right alongside them, handing out free samples.

Today, most people submit their taxes electronically so that with the push of a button, they are in the IRS' possession, and refunds are turned around almost as quickly. Another change is that instead of having to wait and wonder about when your refund would arrive, there is now a convenient website provided by the Internal Revenue Service specifically so that eager filers can track the receipt of their forms and when they can expect to see any monies that they're owed by Uncle Sam. The site is aply called "Where's my refund?" and if you want an idea of whether word has gotten around about the service's availability, you can track how many people are using it on another new site, analytics.usa.gov.

Both sites are operated by the federal government. While "Where's my refund?" is specifically targeted at the individual user and asks for identifying information (Social Security Number, tax filing status, amount of refund), the analytics site provides general information about the IRS site as well as all of the other websites provided by the federal government. Its data is based on a Google Analytics account, and it provides a fascinating glimpse into what is on the minds of the American people. At any given time you can visit the site and see the number of people who are currently on the government's sites, as well as how many have visited each over the past week and the past month. It's no surprise that the IRS has been a hot spot over the last several days and weeks, with nearly three quarters of a million checking in for all types of information.

Other popular sites have been the federal weather forecasting site, which will likely stop getting so many visitors now that the winter storm season seems to be behind us.  It's also interesting to see how people are accessing the site: though desktops still lead the way with 67.2 percent, mobiles are also well represented at 25.1 percent. Also of interest is the fact that most people in the country who are accessing the government sites are now using Chrome rather than Internet Explorer - 34.6% use the Google browser, 28.2 % are using Internet Explorer, and 20.4% are using Safari. 

Check your State Refund

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Lee Reams II

Lee Reams II

CEO

I am a tax and business news junkie who has spent the last 20 years developing and executing "best in class" word-of-mouth marketing campaigns for tax and accounting professionals. With TaxBuzz and CountingWorks we have taken that same commitment to quality content directly to the consumer. Keeping you up-to-date with the latest tax law changes, business growth tips and planning strategies to help you reach your best financial outcome.

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