Some Tax Break: 68% of Americans Claim They Paid More or the Same in Taxes

[JayhawkSD]

2. The confusion between refund and amount of tax paid is astonishing.

There are about a dozen threads in DU on this subject, and in every one of them the majority of complaints are about a smaller refund. Those complaints never mention a larger paycheck, smaller withholding, or the amount of tax actually paid.

The Hill article says that "The survey results show individuals' perceptions about their taxes for 2018," probably because it questions them about refunds rather than actual tax paid.

It talks about what people "tended to believe they paid in federal taxes," and that people "said they owed more in 2018," which makes it even more clear that the issue was refunds and not the actual amount of taxes paid.

The question itself is, "Did you pay more or less for federal taxes for 2018 as compared to 2017?" which is sufficiently poorly worded to invite people to compare refunds rather than actual tax amount. Their phrasing in the article makes it clear that they are well aware of that impact of the wording of the question.