The Effects of Tax-Time Interventions on Savings Rate and Amount: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Abstract

Purpose: This systematic review examined the effects of tax-time saving interventions that promote saving with tax refunds from relevant experimental or quasi-experimental studies of interventions aimed toward low- and moderate-income adults delivered when filing U.S. income taxes. Method: A systematic review process was used to search for published and unpublished studies from sources through September 2021. Two reviewers screened studies, extracted data and assessed risk of bias, and effects on savings rate and amount were synthesized using robust variance estimation. Results: This review included 14 unique studies. Five studies reporting 13 effect sizes for savings amount found a small, statistically significant effect ( d  =  0.06, 95% CI [0.05, 0.08]). Nine studies reporting 35 effect sizes found no statistically significant effect for savings rate (LOR =  4.11, 95% CI [0.42, 40.44]). Discussion: Results suggest some evidence that tax-time savings can be a relatively simple method for increasing the amount low- to moderate-income adults save.