Nearly two-thirds of American families will find themselves with a little extra money to spend this spring. The NRF 2004 Tax Returns Consumer Intentions and Actions Survey, conducted by BIGresearch for NRF, found that 67.6 percent of consumers (or 145.7 million people) expect to receive a tax refund this year.* Although April 15 is the deadline to file taxes, 65.1 percent of consumers filed in January or February while another 20.9 percent will file in March. Only 14.0 percent of consumers plan to wait until April to file their taxes.

Though many consumers plan to use their refund checks to pay down debt (49.2%) or add to their savings (37.4%), others will use their refund for everyday expenses (27.0%), to make a major purchase (11.6%), or for vacation (12.2%).

Tax time provides a big boost to retailers during a traditionally slow time of the year, said NRF President and CEO Tracy Mullin. Though some consumers will choose to spend their refunds while others plan to save, these tax refunds will ultimately put consumers in a better position to spend, now and in the future.

The Internal Revenue Service has announced that the average tax return as of March 5, 2004 was $2,182, up 4.4 percent from $2,089 last year at that time. For more information on tax returns to date, click here.

About the Survey

The NRF 2004 Tax Returns Consumer Intentions and Actions Survey, conducted for NRF by BIGresearch, was designed to gauge consumer behaviour and shopping trends related to tax returns. The poll of 7,224 consumers was conducted from February 4-11. The consumer poll has a margin of error of plus or minus 1.0 percent.

BIGresearch is a consumer market intelligence firm that provides unique consumer insights that are gathered online utilizing very large sample sizes. BIGresearch's syndicated Consumer Intentions and Actions survey monitors the pulse of more than 7,000 consumers each month to empower its clients with unique insights for identifying opportunities in a fragmented and changing marketplace.

The National Retail Federation is the world's largest retail trade association, with membership that comprises all retail formats and channels of distribution including department, specialty, discount, catalogue, Internet and independent stores as well as the industry's key trading partners of retail goods and services. NRF represents an industry with more than 1.4 million U.S. retail establishments, more than 23 million employees - about one in five American workers - and 2003 sales of $3.8 trillion. As the industry umbrella group, NRF also represents more than 100 states, national and international retail associations. www.nrf.com.

*The tax returns estimate reflects the approximate number of people who will be filing taxes. However, since many people file joint tax returns, the number does not estimate the number of tax returns.

Click here for sample charts from this survey as well as complete results by age, gender, and region of the country.