Tax season is once again upon Americans, as filings have already been submitted and some refunds handed out. After a very quick year of advances for President Trump, capped off by the passage of the Big, Beautiful Bill, Americans are starting to see some big tax refunds in 2026. In fact, already well outperforming last year.
The early filing data from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) shows the average tax refund is up 10.9-percent this year, compared to the same point last year. As of February 6th, the average refund was about $2,290, up from $2,065 last year. The IRS has also reported more than $16.9 billion in refunds already issued, a 1.9-ercent increase from last year.
President of Americans for Tax Reform Grover Norquist says many people did not realize exactly how big the cuts were in the Big, Beautiful Bill, and as a result, overpaid to Uncle Sam.
"There were additional tax cuts this year, increase in the per-child tax credit, the standard deduction, no tax on tips, and a whole bunch of other tax cuts," he says.
This is important. It is a marginal increase going back to American taxpayers. But it also suggests this is not some false flag. It is not an artificial spike. Comparable filing activity along with the higher refunds means this not some outlier. This is a big change in finally putting Americans first again.
President Trump did push through tax cuts in 2017, which was monumental. But they ended up expiring, and the big, beautiful bill was the solution to extending them. Because without that extension, say if Democrats had won the majority in 2024, this filing season would have been quite painful.
"If this tax cut had not been passed, small business taxes would go up, the per-child tax credit would be cut in half...the standard deduction would be cut in half by the Democrats," says Norquist. "Every American would have paid more in taxes."
There is even better news too, than just getting a little extra money in your wallet. This is not some policy that a Democrat majority can somehow overturn if they regain power.
This bit of tax cuts is here to stay, unlike 2017.
"Not like you can wait ten years, and the Democrats take it away...this is a permanent tax cut that benefits every single American," Norquist says.
This is just the beginning of America's resurgence, and if it is anything like the first tax season under Trump, things are on a good track in America.
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