And the amount of money refunded continued to soar over 2013 totals. The IRS has paid out $100.5 billion for the season to date. 22.9 percent-higher when compared to the $81.9 million pumped out through Feb. 15, 2013. That means another $36 billion in checks went out between February 8 and February 15 The average return of $,3211 this year was 6.3 percent more than $3,021 a year earlier. The size of the average return for the February 8 period was $3,317.

The story continued to be the rise in self-prepared returns. There were 18.2 million of those so far in 2014, up 6.6 percent from 17.1 million a year ago. Paid preparers have filed just under 19 million returns, down 5.4 percent from just over 20 million in 2013's corresponding period. The professional total represented a slight improvement for the season through February 8 when that category was off by 5.6 percent.

Electronic filing remained strong. The IRS said nearly 95 percent of all returns received this year were efiled.