IRS Flooded with Tax Returns Early in Tax Season

The Internal Revenue Service said Thursday that only three weeks after the opening of tax season, it has already received about one-third of the individual income tax returns it expects to receive in 2014.

The IRS reported that tax season has gone smoothly so far, despite the two-week delay before kicking off tax season on January 31.  The IRS has processed almost 98 percent of the 49.6 million returns received so far. Each week this filing season, the IRS has processed a greater percentage of the returns received than during comparable weeks last year.

More taxpayers are filing their returns electronically this year. Overall, 46.6 million returns have been e-filed this year, up 1 percent from the same time last year.

As in past years, the IRS has seen the greatest increase among individuals filing from their home computers. Nearly 22 million returns have been e-filed from home computers this year, an uptick of nearly 7 percent compared to the same time last year.

So far this year, the IRS has issued more than 40 million tax refunds, an increase of more than 6 percent compared to the same time last year. Nearly 90 percent of these refunds were directly deposited into taxpayers’ accounts.

2014 FILING SEASON STATISTICS

Cumulative statistics comparing 2/22/13 and 2/21/14

Individual Income Tax Returns:

2013

2014

% Change

Total Receipts

49,448,000

49,558,000

2.7

Total Processed

42,837,000

48,335,000

12.8

 

 

 

 

E-filing Receipts:

 

 

 

TOTAL          

46,149,000

46,641,000

1.1

Tax Professionals

25,618,000

24,687,000

-3.6

Self-prepared

20,531,000

21,954,000

6.9

 

 

 

 

Web Usage:

 

 

 

Visits to IRS.gov

155,167,572

145,881,766

-6.0

 

 

 

 

Total Refunds:

 

 

 

Number

38,042,000

40,389,000

6.2

Amount

$113.738

Billion

$125.831

Billion

10.6

Average refund

$2,990

$3,116

4.2

 

 

 

 

Direct Deposit Refunds:

 

 

 

Number

34,618,000

35,694,000

3.1

Amount

$107.228

Billion

$112.628

Billion

5.0

Average refund

$3,097

$3,155

1.9

 

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