A new SSRS Opinion Panel Omnibus poll conducted before the federal income tax filing deadline finds that as of 12 days before the deadline, about three in ten (31%) of those who said they needed to file a return had not yet done so.
- This included 25% who said they planned to file by the deadline, and
- 6% who said they would apply for an extension.
These findings are part of an SSRS Opinion Panel Omnibus poll conducted March 21 – 24 and April 3–7, 2025, among a nationally representative sample of 2,012 adults aged 18 and older.
Income Tax Return Filing Dates
Expectations of a Tax Refund
Among those who had filed or said they would file a return, 59% had already received or expected to get a refund. About one in four (27%) said they expected to owe money or had already paid. Fourteen percent were not sure whether or not they would receive a refund. Filers aged 18-29 (70%) and 30-49 (64%) were significantly more likely than adults age 50 and over (51%) to expect a refund. Filers with household incomes of $100,000 a year or more were more likely than all other income groups to believe they would owe money (39%); but even among this higher-income group, more people expected to get a refund (49%) than to owe money.
Those Who Expect a Refund File Their Tax Returns Earlier
Filers who had received or expected to receive a tax refund were more than twice as likely to have filed their returns as of 12 days before the deadline (77%) than those who had already paid or expected to owe money (37%). More than six in ten of those who expected to owe money had not yet filed, including 55% expecting to file by the deadline and 8% to apply for an extension.
Online Tax Software Is a Popular Way to File
When tax filers were asked how they had prepared or would prepare and file their returns, the most popular choice was using online tax software like TurboTax (44%), followed by using an accountant (29%). Filers aged 65 and over were the most likely age group to report using an accountant (40%) and the least likely to use online tax software (33%). Filers with college degrees (49%) were more likely than those with a high school education or less (39%) to report using online tax software.
Tax Refunds Are Especially Important to Younger, Lower-Income, and Minority Filers
About two-thirds of those who had received or expected to receive a tax refund (or were not sure if they would) said the refund was very important (42%) or somewhat important (26%) to their overall financial situation. Those aged 18-29 (47%) or 30-49 (51%) were more likely than those aged 65 and over (25%) to say their tax refund was very important. More than half of those with household incomes under $50,000 a year (56%), Black adults (61%), and Latino adults (56%) reported that their tax refund was very important.
Those Expecting a Tax Refund are Most Likely to Use It to Pay Bills or Debts
Nearly half of those who had received or expected to receive a refund planned to use it to pay bills or debts (47%). One in four (25%) said they would save or invest it. Those with household incomes of $100,000 a year or more were the group most likely to say they would save or invest the refund (40%).
Slightly More Than Half of U.S. Adults Believe They Pay More Than Their Fair Share in Federal Income Taxes
Slightly more than half of U.S. adults (53%) believe they pay more than their fair share in federal income taxes. Nearly as many believe the amount is about right (41%) or that they pay less than their fair share (6%). Adults aged 30-49 (59%) and 50-64 (57%) are more likely than younger or older adults to believe they pay more than their fair share. Adults with household incomes of $50,000 a year or less are the least likely income group to believe they pay more than their fair share (39%); about half (48%) of this income group believe they pay about the right amount.
Methodology
These findings are part of an SSRS Opinion Panel Omnibus poll conducted February 7–9, 2025, among a nationally representative sample of 2,016 adults aged 18 and older. The margin of error for total respondents is +/-2.7 percentage points at the 95% confidence level. The design effect is 1.49. View the questions used for this analysis, along with the responses >>. The data was analyzed by SSRS contributor, John M. Benson.
John M. Benson is a public opinion researcher, academic writer, and editor with over thirty years’ experience examining public attitudes about health policy and other domestic policy issues. He has directed numerous national and international polling projects leading to more than 100 publications in New England Journal of Medicine, Health Affairs, JAMA, Public Opinion Quarterly, Emerging Infectious Diseases, Public Health Reports, Milbank Quarterly, Social Science Research, and other domestic policy and polling journals. He is also co-author of American Public Opinion and Health Care (CQ Press).
The SSRS Opinion Panel Omnibus is conducted on the SSRS Opinion Panel. SSRS Opinion Panel members are recruited randomly based on a nationally representative ABS (Address Based Sample) design (including Hawaii and Alaska). ABS respondents are randomly sampled by Marketing Systems Group (MSG) through the U.S. Postal Service’s Computerized Delivery Sequence File (CDS), a regularly updated listing of all known addresses in the U.S. For the SSRS Opinion Panel, known business addresses are excluded from the sample frame.
The SSRS Opinion Panel is a multi-mode panel (web and phone). Most panelists take self-administered web surveys; however, the option to take surveys conducted by a live telephone interviewer is available to those who do not use the internet as well as those who use the internet but are reluctant to take surveys online. All sample drawn for this study were SSRS Opinion Panelists who are U.S. adults ages 18 or older. Sample was selected to ensure representation by age, gender, race and ethnicity, education, Census region, and party identification. Possible sources of non-sampling error include non-response bias, as well as question wording and ordering effects.
About SSRS
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