IRS News Releases  
March 7, 2006

More Taxpayers E-filing than Ever Before

WASHINGTON - In the first release of tax filing statistics this year, the Internal Revenue Service announced today that electronically filed returns have increased, led by a big increase in home computer use.

Through early March, more than 39.5 million taxpayers have e-filed this year. Home computer use is up 16.5 percent, with e-file by tax professionals up nearly 4 percent.
Out of 54 million tax returns filed so far this year, e-file represents 73 percent of the total returns. By comparison, 72 percent of returns were filed electronically for the comparable period last year.

“The home computer is increasingly replacing the paper tax form,” said IRS Commissioner Mark W. Everson. “Both individual taxpayers and tax professionals are turning to e-file more and more because it’s fast and accurate.”

Other new figures reflect that taxpayers are using other electronic options at record paces:

  • Since January, the IRS web site had 70.4 million visits, up almost 6 percent from last year. Last week alone, the site had more than 7.2 million visits, up nearly 9 percent from last year.

  • So far this year, 33.9 million individual income tax refunds have been directly deposited into bank accounts. These deposits represent about 76 percent of all tax refunds, up from 73 percent for the same period last year.

  • So far this year, 629,251 credit card payments have been made by individual taxpayers, up 41 percent compared to 448,547 for the same period last year. These payments represent $355 million, a 48 percent increase from $240 million during the same period last year.

2006 Filing Season Statistics

Cumulative Through the Weeks Ending 3/04/05 and 3/03/06

Individual Income Tax Returns

 

 

2005

2006

Percent Change

Total Receipts

54,566,000

53,947,000

-1.1

Total Processed

50,153,000

48,957,000

-2.4

 

 

 

 

E-filing Receipts

 

 

 

TOTAL

39,214,000

39,503,000

0.7

Tax Professionals

27,155,000

28,137,000

   3.6

Self-prepared

9,756,000

11,366,000

16.5

Telefile

2,303,000

N/A

---

 

 

 

 

Web Usage

 

 

 

Unique Visits to IRS.gov

66,468,998

70,435,197

6.0

 

 

 

 

Total Refunds

 

 

 

Number

44,931,000

44,544,000

- 0.9

Amount

$106,517 billion

110.465 billion

3.7

Average

$2,371

$2,480

4.6

 

 

 

 

Direct Deposit Refunds

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Number

32,721,000

33,887,000

3.6

Amount

$86.969 billion

93.440 billion

7.4

Average

$2,658

$2,757

3.7

 

 

 

 

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