Briefs & Summaries Financial Behaviors Financial Inclusion

Account Use and Demand for Tax-Refund Savings Vehicles: Evidence From the Refund to Savings Experiment

Refund to Savings (R2S) fielded the intention survey to a random sample of 4,087
TurboTax users during the 2012 tax season, soon after they completed their taxes. Goals of the survey include learning about the banking status of respondents, about the types of accounts they hold, and about their interest in opening new accounts to save their refunds or in using existing accounts to do so. The survey focuses on nine saving vehicles: checking accounts, savings accounts, savings bonds, prepaid debit cards, CDs, money market accounts, IRAs (including Roth IRAs), 529-plan college savings accounts, and health savings accounts (HSAs). this brief looks at the implications for future research from the respondent results.

Project: Refund to Savings (R2S)

Citation

Grinstein-Weiss, M., Tucker, J., Key, C., Holub, K., & Ariely, D. (2013, May). Account use and demand for tax-refund saving vehicles: Evidence from the Refund to Savings experiment (CSD Research Brief 13-13). St. Louis, MO: Washington University, Center for Social Development.