IR-2008-127, Nov. 5, 2008 WASHINGTON — Individual taxpayers e-filed almost 90 million tax returns during 2008, an increase of more than 12 percent over the prior year. Of the 155 million tax returns filed, about 58 percent were filed electronically. “More people with home computers and businesses embraced electronic filing this year," said IRS Commissioner Doug Shulman. “Every year, more people realize that electronic filing is the safe, accurate way for taxpayers to complete their taxes and get faster refunds.” Tax Returns Filed by Individuals While the total number of returns has increased by 23 percent during the past decade, the number filed electronically has increased by 206 percent. Year Total Returns e-Filed Returns Percent of total e-filed 1999 125,900,000 29,349,000 23.31% 2000 128,430,000 35,412,000 27.57% 2001 130,965,000 40,244,000 30.73% 2002 131,728,000 46,892,000 35.60% 2003 131,557,000 52,944,000 40.24% 2004 132,200,000 61,507,000 46.53% 2005 133,933,000 68,476,000 51.13% 2006 136,071,000 73,255,000 53.84% 2007 140,188,000 79,979,000 57.05% 2008 155,490,000 89,886,000 57.80% This year, almost 27 million returns were filed by individuals from their home computers, up from 22.6 million last year ― a 19 percent increase. Filings from home computers accounted for 30 percent of all returns e-filed by individuals. Even though individual tax filings were spurred to unprecedented levels by the economic stimulus payments, the percentage of those e-filed increased to 58 percent. Free File During 2008, taxpayers with an adjusted gross income of $54,000 or less, or about 70 percent of individual taxpayers, had the option of choosing to e-file for free through IRS Free File, a partnership between the IRS and some software manufacturers. Almost 4.8 million tax returns were filed through Free File, an increase of 24 percent over last year’s total of almost 3.9 million returns. Refunds: Direct Deposit and IRS.gov Set Records More taxpayers chose to receive their refunds through direct deposit during 2008. The agency made 66 million direct deposit payments in 2008, up 8 percent from 61 million payments at the same time in 2007. Overall, the IRS issued 107 million tax refund payments in 2008, up almost 2 percent from 105 million refund payments for the same time in 2007. As of Oct. 31, the average refund for 2008 was $2,371, up 4 percent from $2,280 at the same time in 2007. IRS.gov The IRS Internet site, IRS.gov, continues to be a convenient source of federal tax information that consumers can trust, and the site’s popularity continues to increase. As of Oct. 18, IRS.gov had been visited 326,522,488 times. Tax Returns e-filed by Businesses Businesses also broke e-file records during 2008 by filing almost 2 million corporate and partnership income tax returns, an increase of more than 50 percent over the prior year. Partnership e-filings saw the steepest increase. Large partnerships, those with more than 100 partners, e-filed more than 27,000 returns during 2008, up 156 percent compared to the prior year’s total. Corporations and partnerships e-filed 1,944,421 tax returns during 2008, up 50 percent from last year’s total of 1,294,475. The total number for e-filed returns that were not filed by individuals was 3,365,757, up 65 percent from last year’s total of 2,172,753. This number includes forms e-filed by exempt organizations. Filing Season Statistics 2008 FILING SEASON STATISTICS Cumulative through the weeks ending 11/02/07 and 10/31/08 Individual Income Tax Returns 2007 2008 % Change Total Receipts 139,272,000 155,490,000 11.6 Total Processed 138,647,000 154,241,000 11.3 E-filing Receipts: TOTAL 79,979,000 89,886,000 12.4 Tax Professionals 57,420,000 62,959,000 9.6 Self-prepared 22,559,000 26,927,000 19.4 Free File 3,853,813 4,774,894 23.9 Web Usage: Visits to IRS.gov 198,049,375 329,367,883 66.3 Total Refunds: Number 105,147,000 106,780,000 1.6 Amount ($Bil) 242.805 256.264 5.5 Average refund $2,309 $2,400 3.9 Direct Deposit Refunds: Number 61,444,000 66,338,000 8.0 Amount ($Bil) 165.759 180.498 8.9 Average refund $2,698 $2,721 0.9 Subscribe to IRS Newswire
