Just in time for today's filing deadline, a recent survey from Carnegie Mellon University found that if given a $1000 tax refund - this year's average is about $3034 - Millennials would spend it - men opted for electronics, while women chose clothing. Despite the fact that student loan debt has surpassed $1 trillion, only 5% of male Millennials said they'd apply their refund to lessening their personal debtload. By contrast, similar research from Canada found that 56% of Millennials there would save or invest any refund they receive. Those financially conservative Canucks also get an extra couple of weeks to finish their returns; their income tax filing deadline is April 30.
Millennials have been a hot topic this tax season. H&R Block made a splashy marketing grab for the tax preparation business of the country's more than 75M members of Gen Y. Taking a page from Bloomberg Businessweek's book, they opted to mock their target market with a website called Hipster Tax Crisis, because, apparently, "Hipsters of America are in a crisis as they struggle to file taxes in non-ironic ways." Okay. DIY tax software providers TurboTax teamed up with Spotify to provide a tax prep playlist for those Millennials who prefer to calculate what they owe the IRS with musical accompaniment.
And there's been no shortage of free advice for Millennials struggling to sort their credits and deductions. USA Today offered up a first-person piece from a Millennial who had successfully filed her own taxes entitled, "If I Can Do My Taxes, Any Millennial Can." It helps if your boyfriend's dad is an IRS auditor, I learned from reading it. The Billfold ran an instructive exchange - I assume it's not fictional - between two Millennials discussing their tax situations, which reads exactly as you imagine it would. Even The Guardian is getting into the income tax counsel game, generously providing a crash course in common tax prep lingo for youthful last-minute filers. I'd argue, however, if you don't know the difference between a W-2 and 1099 only days before the deadline, you need more help than a list of tips can offer.
While media treatment might make it seem as if Millennials have all the tax-savvy of the average family pet (Wait, you can totally claim Patches as a dependent, right?), new research shows that Gen Y's cautious attitude toward managing their money is on par with that of their grandparents who lived through the Great Depression. In fact, 62% identify as "disciplined" or "highly disciplined" financial planners. Just don't let them Instagram their 1099s, H&R Block warns.
