IR-2006-47, March 22, 2006 WASHINGTON — The Internal Revenue Service announced today that taxpayers are continuing to e-file from home computers at a record pace, up almost 17 percent from the same period last year. “People using tax preparation software is driving the increase in e-filing,” said IRS Commissioner Mark W. Everson. “Taxpayers can rely on e-file as a safe, accurate way to quickly finish their taxes and get a refund.” So far this tax filing season, 70 percent of all returns have been e-filed, compared to 68 percent for the same period last year. As of last Friday, 28 percent of e-filed returns were filed by people using their home computers, up from 25 percent of e-filed returns for the same period last year. More than 13 million returns have been filed this tax season by people e-filing from the comfort of their own homes, up from just over 11 million for the same period last year. Also, more people are choosing to have their tax refunds directly deposited than ever before. So far this year, the IRS has directly deposited almost 40 million refunds, or 70 percent of all refunds issued this tax filing season, up from 67 percent of the total for the same period last year. People are also visiting the IRS Web site – IRS.gov – in record numbers. The IRS has recorded almost 84 million unique visits to IRS.gov this year, up from 80 million for the same period last year, an increase of 6.5 percent. 2006 Filing Season Statistics Cumulative through the weeks ending 3/18/05 and 3/17/06 Individual Income Tax Returns 2005 2006 Percent Change Total Receipts 67,377,000 67,077,000 -0.4 Total Processed 63,455,000 62,726,000 -1.1 E-filing Receipts TOTAL 45,936,000 46,874,000 2.0 Tax Professionals 32,064,000 33,664,000 5.0 Self-prepared 11,329,000 13,210,000 16.6 Telefile 2,543,000 NA NA Web Usage Unique Visits to IRS.gov 78,512,013 83,586,558 6.5 Total Refunds Number 56,279,000 56,320,000 0.1 Amount $128,820 billion 133.993 billion 4.0 Average $2,289 $2,379 4.0 Direct Deposit Refunds Number 37,949,000 39,765,000 4.8 Amount $99.208 billion 107.529 billion 8.4 Average $2,614 $2,704 3.4 Subscribe to IRS Newswire
