Though the deadline for filing taxes is not until April 15, many consumers have gotten a head start. According to the NRF 2005 Tax Returns Consumer Intentions and Actions Survey, conducted by BIGresearch for NRF, only one in seven consumers (13.7%) plan to wait until April to file their taxes this year, and most of them (64.5%) filed in January or February. The survey also found that more than two-thirds of consumers (67.3%), or 147.7 million people, expect to receive a tax refund this year.*
"Tax time provides a monetary and psychological boost to consumers, as there is something exceptional about getting money back from the government," said NRF President and CEO Tracy Mullin. "Throughout the month of April we expect retailers to offer a variety of promotions geared to encourage consumers to spend part of their refunds on new electronics, clothing, and cars."
Half of those who expect a tax refund plan to use the check to pay down debt (49.9%), while more than a third also hope to put some of the money into savings (39.0%). Some consumers also plan to use a portion of their refund for everyday expenses (24.1%), vacation (13.4%), or a major purchase (9.1%).
Young adults are the most likely to plan to pay down debt, with 59.6 percent of 18-24 year-olds planning to use a portion of their return to pay down credit cards and other debts, up 8.9 points over last year.
Though men and women are similar in their desires to use their refund to pay down debt and put money into savings, one in six men (15.1%) plan to use part of their tax refund to go on vacation. Women are almost twice as likely as men to use some of their refund on a major purchase (11.5% vs. 6.5%).
The Internal Revenue Service has announced that the average tax return as of March 19 was $2,259, up 6.2 percent from $2,128 last year at that time. For more information on tax returns to date, click here.
About the Survey
The NRF 2005 Tax Returns Consumer Intentions and Actions Survey, conducted for NRF by BIGresearch, was designed to gauge consumer behavior and shopping trends related to tax returns. The poll of 6,366 consumers was conducted from February 2-9. 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, catalog, 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 2004 sales of $4.1 trillion. As the industry umbrella group, NRF also represents more than 100 state, national and international retail associations.
