Kansas Department of Revenue reports $14 billion in annual collections, flags staffing, plate costs and taxpayer advocate pilot

Secretary Burghardt told the Committee on Taxation that the Kansas Department of Revenue processed and accounted for roughly $14,000,000,000 in receipts in the most recent reporting year and outlined operational priorities for 2026.

Burghardt said the bulk of collections flow to the state general fund and the highway fund, together accounting for about 76.9% of the department’s receipts. “We roughly receive and process about $14,000,000,000 a year,” he said, and described the Division of Taxation as the unit that handles the primary tax types the committee oversees.

Why it matters: the report provides the committee with updated revenue trends and operational pressures that could affect budget and statutory choices this legislative session.

Key numbers and trends

Burghardt reported that more than 1,000,000 refunds were issued in the year described by the department (transcript figure: 1,005,935), totaling roughly $917,000,000 in refunded dollars and an average refund of about $866, an increase of roughly 13–14% over the prior year. He also said roughly 93% of individual income tax returns were filed electronically; paper returns have higher error rates (10–15%) compared with electronically filed returns (2–3%).

The department identified 9,767 returns as fraudulent for 2025 and stopped…