1 Million Taxpayers Will Earn Interest on Delayed Returns

The Internal Revenue Service said Thursday that 1.15 million individual tax refunds will earn interest this year because they were not processed on time.

That figure is expected to be considerably higher than last year, although spokesman Rod Young said the IRS still is compiling statistics on how many refunds drew interest in 1984.

Also, said Young, the agency has yet to estimate how much interest will be paid this year. Last year’s total paid on late refunds was $209 million. This year’s total is likely to be higher because the interest rate, the size of refunds and processing delays have risen, he said.