Average federal tax refund so far: $3,539

It's still early days in the tax season, but the IRS has already received more than 14 million returns, the agency said Friday.

And it has issued refunds averaging $3,539 to nearly 7.6 million filers through January 30.

Refunds tend to be bigger early in the tax season, since those expecting a lot of money back are most likely to file first.

Over the course of the next few months, nearly 8 out of 10 filers will get a refund.

Normally, the IRS cuts its refund checks pretty quickly. But this year, because of budget cuts, IRS Commissioner John Koskinen has warned that there could be a delay in issuing some of them.

Related: Obamacare taxpayers ask, 'Where's my refund?'

The agency said 9 out of 10 refunds will go out within 21 days from when a return is filed. But refunds for paper returns -- which normally take four to six weeks -- could take at least 7 weeks this year.

The vast majority of the returns filed so far this year (13.3 million) were filed electronically.

Overall, the IRS receives about 150 million returns a year.

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