‘Taxiety’ Prominent for Gen Z and Millennial Filers this Tax Season
With tax season coming to an end next week on April 15, many Americans of Generation Z (Gen Z) along with Millennials, have grown anxious, encountering difficulty with tax filing and worriment over possibly getting audited by the IRS. This is called “taxiety,” or anxiety over the process of filing taxes.
According to a CNET 2025 survey, 51% of Gen Z participants in a survey expressed taxiety, the highest percentage among the generations surveyed. Not far behind Gen Z was Millennials with 48% worried over taxes and related issues.
The survey had a sample size of “1,055 adults, of which 877 plan to file a tax return.”
Tax filers by and large fear they will be incompetent during the filing process. They also lack trust in the system and dislike the tediousness that comes with filing taxes.
For instance, the survey results indicate that 25% of tax filers fear they’ll make a mistake on their filings; while 24% feel they will have to pay a third-party expert for their taxes to be done correctly. A smaller percentage dislike having to “track down multiple documents,” or risk having their tax information leaked to scammers.
Only 15% fear they will owe more money in their returns than they can currently afford. Others are unaware of what service to use, or what to do at all regarding their taxes.
In contrast to Millennials and Gen Z, about one in five Generation X filers (22%) and Baby Boomers (20%) are cautious of making an error on their tax return.
According to CNET, some filers use TikTok, artificial intelligence, and Instagram as aids in the filing process.
