The Iowa Department of Revenue and Finance processed a record number of tax refunds this year. Department spokesperson Renee Mulvey says they’ve sent out 40-thousand more refund checks than last year.She says the refunds averaged 456 dollars, with a total of 447-million dollars in refunds paid out. The state paid 374-million dollars in refunds last year. Mulvey says they were able to process the refunds faster, as more people filed electronically.She says 630-thousand people filed electronically, 100-thousand more than last year. The department made a special push to get people to file electronically this year because budget cuts left them with fewer people to work on returns. Mulvey says electronic filing allows them to figure the refunds without opening envelopes, sorting pages and entering the data onto the computer. Not all the Iowa returns are done. Mulvey says they’re still working on about two thousand refunds and they should be done by the end of this month. Mulvey says the final returns would be done a month ahead of what they projected.
