For Immediate Release Media Contact
March 16, 2009 Jeff Welch
Triage Tax Relief
832-646-1351
Taxpayers Choosing To Stay Home To Prepare And Electronically File Their Income Tax Returns Leads To Record Breaking E-file Numbers This Tax Season
E-file Usage of Self Prepared Income Tax Return Grows
Houston, TX – (March 16, 2009), With the April 15th tax filing deadline just a little less than a month away, the IRS has announced that the number of income tax returns electronically filed from home computers has exceeded 18 million tax returns this year. Jeff Welch, who operates the tax website www.you-file.com where taxpayers go to file their income tax returns from their home computer, said the IRS made the announcement this past week.
Welch said that the IRS also reported that the number of self prepared income tax returns electronically filed from home computers has increased 20 percent this year from the number of income tax returns that were e-filed from home computers during the same time last year. Welch said that the number of self prepared income tax returns e-filed from home computers last year amounted to just over 15 million tax returns.
Welch looked at the electronic filing numbers that were put out by the IRS and noticed an interesting trend. He said that “it is interesting to note that while the number of income tax returns that were e-filed from self prepared taxpayers has increased by over 3 million tax returns this year, the number of electronically filed tax returns by tax professionals has actually decreased this year by 70,000 tax returns.” Welch speculates that the fall off on e-filing for tax professionals and the increase in e-filing self prepared income tax returns is related to online confidence by taxpayers. Welch says that electronically filed tax returns from home computers continues to increase every tax year as taxpayers become more comfortable doing things online. Improvements to online tax software over the years has helped fuel this growing trend.
Welch points out other e-filing figures from the IRS announcement. He says the IRS reported just under 60 million individual tax returns had been filed so far this year and nearly 52 million of those tax returns were electronically filed. The average tax refund for taxpayers so far this year has been $2,811. The total number of refunds processed by the IRS so far this year has been over 54 million. Welch goes on to say that “when you break down the number of income tax refunds issued by direct deposit, the average income tax refund goes up to $3,031. Nearly 45 million income tax refunds were issued by direct deposit.
Triage Tax Relief is an online resource to help taxpayers stay in federal tax compliance with the IRS on tax related matters. Interested individuals can visit www.you-file.com for more information on tax issues or to file a tax return using industry leading software before the April 15th tax filing deadline. Taxpayers can prepare and file their own taxes online from their home computer. If taxpayers request their income tax refund from the IRS via direct deposit, they can typically get their refund in 10 days. The IRS directly deposits income tax refunds on Friday.
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