

IR-2006-53, April 6, 2006
Washington — The Internal Revenue Service announced today that taxpayers are continuing to e-file in greater numbers than ever before. As of March 31, 2006, the IRS had received almost 54 million tax returns through e-file, up from 52 million returns for the same period last year, an increase of more than 3 percent.
“E-filing is up, driven by home computer usage,” said IRS Commissioner Mark W. Everson. “Paper returns continue to decline, with the number down by 6.2 percent this year. E-file is the safe, accurate way for more and more taxpayers to quickly finish their taxes and get a refund.”
So far this tax filing season, 67 percent of all returns have been e-filed, compared to 65 percent for the same period last year.
Almost 15 million returns have been filed this tax season by people e-filing from home, up from 12.7 million for the same period last year.  As of last Friday, 27.6 percent of e-filed returns were filed by people using their home computers, up from 24.4 percent of e-filed returns for the same period last year.
More people are choosing to have their tax refunds directly deposited than ever before. So far this year, the IRS has directly deposited 44.6 million refunds, or 67 percent of all refunds issued this tax filing season, up from 63 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 96 million visits to IRS.gov this year, up from 90 million for the same period last year, an increase of 7.3 percent.
Filing Season Statistics:

 


4/01/05


3/31/06


Percent Change


Total Receipts


80,014,000


79,979,000


  0.0


Total Processed


75,743,000


75,697,000


-0.1


 


 


 


 


E-filing Receipts


 


 


 


TOTAL


52,098,000


53,797,000


3.3


Tax Professionals


36,663,000


38,951,000


  6.2


Self-prepared


12,695,000


14,846,000


16.9


Telefile


2,740,000


NA


NA


 


 


 


 


Web Usage


 


 


 


Visits to IRS.gov


89,529,966


96,037,539


7.3


 


 


 


 


Total Refunds


 


 


 


Number


67,063,000


66,710,000


-0.5


Amount


$148,203 billion


$154.388 billion


4.3


Average


$2,210


$2,314


4.7


 


 


 


 


Direct Deposit Refunds


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


Number


42,116,000


44,572,000


5.8


Amount


$108.855 billion


118.873 billion


9.2


Average


$2,585


$2,667


3.2


 


 


 


 

 
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