Latest findings from the Research, Analysis, and Statistics (RAS) Weekly Tracking Report for individual income tax returns for the week ending June 26, 2009 provided a great many eyeopening statistics, compared to last filing season.
As of June 26, 2009, the IRS received about 135.4 million total individual returns, about 10.7 million returns less than the number of returns received at this time last year. This represents around 96% of the individual income tax returns we expect to receive this year.
The total number of returns received this year is well below the number filed at the comparable time last year—last year’s figures include returns filed to claim the Economic Stimulus payments.
Of the 135.4 million total individual returns, e-filed returns totaled 92.4 million (68%) while paper totaled 43 million (32%). The current e-file rate of 68% is about 8 percentage points higher than at this point in time last year. Filings last year solely to claim the Economic Stimulus payments tended more toward paper.
Total e-file volume of 92.4 million returns is over 5.1 million higher than the comparable weekly number for last year, while total paper returns (43 million) are about 15.8 million lower.
Of the total 92.4 million returns e-filed, online filings (31.7 million or over 34% of total e-filed) are up by about 5.1 million (19%) and practitioner (ERO) e-file returns (60.7 million or just under 66% of total e-file) are down by about 26,000 (about 0.04%) compared to this time last year.
The increase in returns filed on-line may reflect a decrease in the marginal cost of e-filing from a home computer.
The number of Free File (Consortium) returns received so far is around 3 million returns, compared to about 4.7 million returns this time last year—about a 37% decrease, perhaps reflecting increased availability and marketing of free and low cost online tax preparation outside of the IRS Free File program. There will be one more such report—an end of the year wrap-up in December.
Publishers Notes: If you are one of the 10.7 people who have not filed taxes for 2008, there are two things you should know.
1. The IRS knows that you did not file for 2008
2. We can help you with the unfiled tax return, within a matter of days.
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About Me
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- I am a telecommunications engineer by trade, graduated DeVry - Chicago Campus, and worked WNUS-Chicago, KPIX San Francisco, Hewlett Packard and United Airlines - SFO. Born and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area. Lived in Europe, Africa for a short time, Mexico and South America. Early Childhood Education was my second career and my most rewarding. From vocational instructor at the college level to my own private preschool and kindergarten, this is the career that touched my heart. And now, even though I am retired and traveling the world, I still find the need to provide value for young children around the globe. I am the author of Travel the World on Social Security and several short fictional reads in the Kindle Store. My favorite Kindle eBooks are the series of educational books for kids ages 3 to 9 years of age. I have included each of the topics necessary for a young child to do well in Kindergarten. My eBooks are best viewed on a large-screen TV. The pages come to life, and children enjoy the enormous size of viewing their eBook on the big screen.