It’s early in the 2015 tax season but Americans are already getting refunds — lots of them.

Nancy Vanden Houten of Stone & McCarthy Research went through the Internal Revenue Service data and notes 7.6 million refunds were issued through Jan. 30, almost double the number of refunds sent out through the end of January last year. getting refunds — lots of them.

But don’t take that as an indication that there are huge numbers of refunds on the way, she cautions.

“At this stage of the tax season, we still view the volume of refund issuance as a timing issue,” she wrote in a research note Tuesday, “rather than an indication that substantially more refunds will go out this year compared to last year.”

Tax returns were accepted starting Jan. 20 this year, compared to Jan. 30 last year. The later date in 2014 was due to  Continue reading →