A tax refund or tax rebate is a refund on taxes when the tax liability is less than the taxes paid. Taxpayers can often get a tax refund on their income tax if the tax they owe is less than the sum of the total amount of the withholding taxes and estimated taxes that they paid, plus the refundable tax credits that they claim.

The EITC, Tax Refunds, and Unemployment Spells
CONSUMER USE OF TAX REFUND ANTICIPATION LOANS
Income tax refunds and the timing of consumption expenditure
Splitting Tax Refunds and Building Savings: An Empirical Test
The Response of Household Consumption to Income Tax Refunds
An Empirical Estimate of Corporate Tax Refundability and Effective Tax Rates
Inertia and Overwithholding: Explaining the Prevalence of Income Tax Refunds
Does changing the timing of a yearly individual tax refund change the amount spent vs. saved?
Tax Policy and the Economy, Volume 20: Splitting Tax Refunds and Building Savings: An Empirical Test
Electronic income tax refund early payment system with means for creating of a new deposit account for receipt of an electronically ...