It isn’t just American’s waists that are growing. The IRS says that the number and size of IRS refunds are growing as well.

USA Today (www.usatoday.com/money/perfi/taxes/2006-03-20-tax-refunds_x.htm) reports that Americans overpaid their taxes by 29 percent. All that extra cash gave Uncle Sam an interest-free loan of $10 billion last year, equal to about $100 per return.

The average refund this year is $2,423 according to the IRS. If you’re owed a refund, don’t wait to collect. Ask for your refund to be direct deposited into your bank account. That should take 10 days. Want to know where your refund is?

Go to the IRS’s website www.irs.gov/individuals/article/0,,id=96596,00.html for instructions on how to figure out where your refund is. And under no circumstances should you ever pay for a RAPID REFUND from any of the commercial tax preparation companies.

If you’ve waited this long to collect your cash, you can wait another 10 days.

March 21, 2006