Americans typically have federal income taxes withheld from their paychecks, money that is aggregated over the course of the year to account for a person's federal tax liability. Then that person files a tax return by the following April, and if the tax payments were too high or too low, the taxpayer must account for the difference through a refund or payment. Currently, 76 percent of Americans who file their taxes receive a tax refund. A senior IRS official said he expected that level to fall just a bit next year to about 73 percent.