The IRS is offering a new split tax refund option for parties that choose direct deposit for their tax refunds. Why? The agency wants to promote savings.
Let’s be honest. What is the first thing you do when you get a tax refund? Do you pay off bills? Do you put it in your savings? Buy some stocks? Nah. Most people go out and buy something with it. In highly technical financial terminology, this is known as “blowing it”.
Americans are infamous for their saving habits. Specifically, they have no such habits. As a society, we save almost none of our savings. This makes many in the government very nervous because they know sooner or later we will be looking to them for money. Social security is already a mess and an aging population is not going to help. As a result, the government takes extraordinary steps to get us to save. This is why we have 401(k) and IRA retirement options.
This year, the IRS is getting into the fray. It is offering a split tax refund option for people that choose to have their refund deposited directly into their bank account. If you file form 8888, the IRS will split up your refund as you indicate and send it to as many as three different accounts.
You are probably wondering why the IRS would do this. Well, the lack of savings issue is starting to get very worrisome. The idea is to try to get you to put some of the money in your bank account to be spent, but also some in a savings account. Yes, things are that desperate. So, does it work? A Harvard Business School study showed a significant number of people would actually use the split refund to put at least some money in a savings or investment account. Walla! Now you can.
Is the split refund option going to solve our national savings problems? No. It should, however, give you a wakeup call in relation to how worried the government is about the issue. Social security is not going to be able to carry us all.