13 Surprising Facts About Your Taxes from Forbes

1. The IRS receives over 140 million individual tax returns and collects over $950 billion in taxes.

2. The biggest tax deductions are those for taxes paid to state and local governments. Next biggest are for interest, especially on home mortgages.

3. The average tax refund is almost $3,000, $2,953 to be exact. In all, over $325 billion in tax refunds are paid out. Tax refunds are great, but really suggest you were having too much withholding taken out of your pay or you made estimated tax payments that were too large. Tax refunds are like interest free loans to the government.

4. Many returns–4 million–report alternative minimum tax (AMT). You compute your regular tax and your AMT and pay whichever is more. Despite recent reforms, AMT plagues taxpayers. Many things–like most attorney fees–are deductible for regular tax but not for AMT. That hurts. See 10 Things To Know About Taxes On Damages.

5. Want to be in the top 1% of earners nationally? You’ll need $369,509 of annual income to join that group. If you aim to be in the top 10% of income earners, you’ll only need $116,555. That means 90% of taxpayers make less.

6. Making a million dollars is a nice goal, but roughly 7,000 millionaires didn’t pay any income tax in 2011. In all over 275,000 returns showed adjusted gross incomes of $1 million or more.

7. California has the most millionaires. More than 40,000 Californians reported over $1 million in income. Vermont has the least–less than 300 millionaires.

8. Want to aim really high and try to crack the $10 million mark? More than 11,000 individual tax returns reported adjusted gross income above $10 million.

9. E-filing is now nearly universal. Almost 90% of individual tax returns are now e-filed.

10. Who uses paid tax preparers? More than half of returns–about 57%–are done by paid preparers.

11. If you don’t itemize and claim the standard deduction, you might want to know that the average standard deduction is $7,000 to $8,000. ($7,884). Itemizers on average claim $26,084.

12. Our tax code is wordy, about 4 million words. It’s always changing, too. Since 2001 alone, there have been more than 4,500 changes.

13. As a percentage of adjusted gross income, people earning $100,000 to $200,000 pay an average federal tax rate of only 12%. Those earning $200,000 to $500,000 pay 19.6%. Don’t confuse marginal rates with average rates. The former is what you pay on your very last dollar.

Tax Day Freebies from Dealnews.com and Passion For Savings

Arby’s is giving away value-sized curly fries or a small order of potato cakes with a printable coupon.

Cinnabon is offering two free Cinnabon Bites on April 15 from 6 to 8 p.m.

Schlotzsky’s is giving away the original small sandwich with the purchase of a 32-ounce drink and chips.

7-Eleven is providing a medium Slurpee for free when you text “Slurp7? to “711711? (ends April 30).

The Melting Pot is giving away a second portion of cheese fondue when you buy one portion.

Subway’s deal: Buy one 6-inch sandwich before 9 a.m., get a second one for free (ends April 30).

Chili’s is giving you a free appetizer or dessert when you “like” its Facebook page.

AMC Theaters is giving away popcorn from Friday, April 12, through Monday, April 15.

Great American Cookies is offering a free birthday cake cookie.

Pinkberry is giving away Pinkberrygreek yogurt from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. every Wednesday until April 24.

Panda Express is giving away a free Samurai surf & turf entree on April 17, the Wednesday after tax day,

HydroMassage will give you a free massage (even if you come a little after tax day).

Office Depot will give you a black and white copy of your tax return and shred five pounds of your incriminating documents for free.

Chik Fil A: Make a purchase on 4/15, bring your receipt back on 5/13 to get a full refund. (Participating locations only, call ahead)

Sonic: 1/2 Price Drinks all day on April 15th

Bruegger’s Bagels: Get a Big Bagel Bundle for $10.50 (Valid 4/12 – 4/15) You’ll find the coupon on Bruegger’s Facebook page starting on April 12.

Taco Bell: $1 Grillers, Drinks, Sparklers and Freezes anytime from 2-5 PM