IRS issues more than $9 billion in refunds so far

(KYMA, KECY/ CNN) - The IRS says Americans are already starting to receive their tax refunds with the federal agency releasing statistics showing it has received nearly 17-million returns as of February 4th.

That's on top of the backlog of 2020 returns the IRS is busy working through.

It says nearly 13-million tax returns have been processed and the average refund has been around $2,200.

The IRS began accepting returns on January 24th and Americans have until April 18th to file their income tax returns.