This tax season, the Internal Revenue Service offered a full range of electronic options, from filing and signing the returns to getting refunds or making payments. And taxpayers have done so in record numbers. It affirms our decisions to broaden the use of electronic commerce and to develop effective partnerships with state tax agencies and private sector firms in the electronic arena. The larger computer-filing segment had a strong gain of almost 27 percent, with a nearly 20 percent increase from tax professionals and a 161 percent growth among home computer users. Computer filing remains available until October 15 for those who have not yet filed their 1998 returns.
Taxpayers using the simplest return appear to be shifting from phone and paper to computer filings.
TeleFile declined five percent and the paper Form 1040EZ dropped eight percent, while computer-filed returns from these taxpayers increased 16 percent. Overall, use of the 1040EZ or an electronic equivalent declined slightly, from around 18 to 17 percent of all returns. TeleFile remains available until August 16. The use of identification numbers as electronic signatures expanded from the TeleFile program to computer-filed returns this year. Nearly 650,000 home computer users took up the IRS invitation to use an e-file customer number and file a paperless return.