WASHINGTON (AP) —
It's Tax Day on Wednesday, the deadline for most Americans to file taxes, and the Trump administration says millions of people have already used new breaks such as no tax on tips and overtime, exemptions for interest on certain car loans, deductions for some seniors, and Trump Accounts for children’s savings.
More than 53 million filers claimed a deduction under one of those provisions from Republicans' massive tax and spending law, a Treasury official told reporters Tuesday before the deadline, with 6 million people claiming no tax on tips, 21 million claiming the overtime deduction and 30 million older Americans claiming the enhanced deduction.
The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to preview the numbers, said the 2026 filing season was a success from the administration's perspective.
Still, the latest data comes as most Americans, or 7 in 10, still think their taxes are too high, according to recent polling, despite the passage of the Republican tax law which promised big savings for taxpayers.
As the tax season kicked off in January, the White House boasted that average refunds were projected to rise by at least $1,000. But currently, the average refund amount is $3,462, according to the latest IRS data, which is up 11% or about $350 from last tax year’s $3,116 average refund payment.
In an interview that aired on Wednesday, President Donald Trump claimed much bigger results. “People are getting refunds of $5,000, $8,000, $11,000 that they had no idea they were getting,” he told Fox Business News. “It’s turned out to be better -- as good or better than I said it would be.”
Treasury says tax refunds this season are up 24% compared with the four-year average of refunds before Trump took office.
The White House has been trying to promote Trump's tax cuts as a way to get voters more enthusiastic about the way he's handling the economy before November's midterm elections, but the message has been overshadowed for weeks by higher gas prices caused by the war in Iran.
Republicans on Capitol Hill took advantage of Tax Day to focus on the tax breaks.
“Lower taxes, bigger refunds and more money in the pockets of hardworking Americans,” House Speaker Mike Johnson said on the Capitol steps, flanked by Republican lawmakers and Americans he said are benefitting, including a restaurant server, a farmer, and small business owners.
“We don’t believe you should send it all here to Uncle Sam,” Johnson said. “We want you to keep it.”
But Democrats said Americans are reeling from inflation and the high cost of living as Trump focuses his attention on the Iran war. “Hardworking families are watching as the Trump administration spends billions to bomb Iran, yet they can’t seem to find any funding for health care, housing or food for hungry children,” said Rep. Pete Aguilar of California, the Democratic caucus chairman.
The 2026 season comes as the IRS has gone through a leadership turnover and reduced its workforce by 27% over the past year through cuts brought on by the Department of Government Efficiency.
IRS CEO Frank Bisignano testified to the Senate Finance Committee on Wednesday, extolling the IRS' implementation of the Republican tax law.
However, Democratic lawmakers have been zeroing in on IRS disclosures of confidential taxpayer information to Immigration and Customs Enforcement as part of an agreement between ICE and the Department of Homeland Security to share information for the purpose of identifying and deporting people illegally in the U.S.
AP Congressional Correspondent Lisa Mascaro contributed.
Sharon Simmons with DoorDash, gets a $100 tip after delivering McDonald's to President Donald Trump in the Oval Office of the White House, Monday, April 13, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
An Arizona state personal income tax form is shown Tuesday, April 7, 2026, in Jefferson City, Mo. (AP Photo/David A. Lieb)
LONDON (AP) — British Prime Minister Keir Starmer on Friday resisted demands he resign over revelations that his scandal-tainted pick for U.K. ambassador to Washington was appointed despite failing security checks.
Starmer says he was not informed that the Foreign Office had overruled the recommendation of security officials in early 2025 not to give Peter Mandelson the job. Many considered Mandelson a risky appointment because of his past friendship with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
The top Foreign Office civil servant, Olly Robbins, took the fall for the decision and resigned late Thursday.
Starmer said he was “absolutely furious” that he had been kept in the dark, calling it staggering” and “unforgivable." He said he would “set out all the relevant facts in true transparency” to Parliament on Monday.
That’s unlikely to end the danger to the prime minister over his fateful decision to appoint Mandelson, a trade expert and elder statesman of the governing Labour Party, as envoy to the Trump administration. It was a calculated risk that backfired spectacularly, and could bring down the prime minister.
Opposition politicians expressed disbelief that Starmer could have been unaware Mandelson had failed security vetting. Starmer’s office said he only found out this week.
Darren Jones, the chief secretary to the prime minister, said Friday that “the recommendation was to not appoint Peter Mandelson to the role,” and that the Foreign Office ignored it. He said that was “astonishing,” but within the rules.
He said no government minister had been told of the security assessment.
Jones said the checks, carried out by a department known as U.K. Security Vetting, “go through financial, personal, sexual, religious and other types of background information, and that is why it is kept extremely private on a portal that only a few people have access to.”
Opposition Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch said claims the prime minister didn’t know were “completely preposterous.”
“This story does not stack up. The prime minister is taking us for fools,” she told the BBC. “All roads lead to a resignation.”
Ed Davey, the leader of the centrist Liberal Democrats, said Starmer “must go” if he misled Parliament and lied to the British public.
Starmer has repeatedly insisted that “due process” was followed in the appointment, which was announced in December 2024. Mandelson took up the Washington post in February 2025, after undergoing security vetting.
Mandelson’s expertise as a former European Union trade chief was considered a major asset in trying to persuade the Trump administration not to slap heavy tariffs on British goods, and seemed to pay off when the countries struck a trade deal in May 2025.
But documents released by the government in March, after being forced to by Parliament, showed Starmer ignored red flags raised by his staff about the appointment. He was warned that Mandelson’s friendship with Epstein, who died in prison in 2019, exposed the government to “reputational risk.”
Starmer fired Mandelson in September 2025 after evidence emerged that he had lied about the extent of his links to Epstein.
The prime minister has apologized to the British public and to Epstein’s victims for believing what he has termed “Mandelson’s lies.”
Starmer’s premiership faced its biggest crisis in February after the release of millions of pages of Epstein-related documents by the U.S. Department of Justice showed the closeness of Mandelson’s relationship with the financier, even after Epstein’s conviction in 2008 for sexual offenses involving a minor.
Emails between the men suggested Mandelson had passed on sensitive — and potentially market-moving — government information to Epstein in 2009, when he was a member of Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s government.
British police subsequently launched a criminal probe and searched Mandelson’s houses in London and western England. Mandelson was arrested on Feb. 23 on suspicion of misconduct in public office.
He has been released without bail conditions as the police investigation continues. Mandelson has previously denied wrongdoing and hasn’t been charged. He does not face allegations of sexual misconduct.
King Charles III’s brother, Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, formerly known as Prince Andrew, is also under police investigation over his friendship with Epstein. He, too, has been arrested but not charged.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer speaks as Starmer hosts social media industry leaders to discuss child safety online Thursday, April 16, 2026, in London. (Leon Neal/Pool Photo via AP)
FILE - This March 28, 2017, photo provided by the New York State Sex Offender Registry shows Jeffrey Epstein. (New York State Sex Offender Registry via AP, File)
FILE - Peter Mandelson, the former U.K. ambassador to the United States, leaves his house in London, March 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung, File)
