The IRS announced last week that nearly 9 million tax refunds have been sent out as of February 11th. According to the agency, that is more than $20 billion. Refunds are also up about 22% for the 2021 filing year.

If you are still waiting on your refund the IRS offers a free tool to check the status. In order to use the “Where’s My Refund” tool taxpayers will need their social security number, filing status, and refund amount. The free tool can be found here: https://www.irs.gov/refunds

The IRS also announced that they will be moving away from using biometric data to verify taxpayers identity when setting up an IRS account online. Taxpayers will now have the option to set up a live virtual interview with an IRS agent to verify their identity.

The agency also went on to say that any taxpayer who chooses to use the facial recognition feature will not have their data stored. The images and data will be deleted once the account is created.