tax pros retake market share from diyers

with a 10 point late-season surge.

by beth bellor

coming into the last 10 days of this wretched season, you take the good news where you can find it.

 

more: tax pros race to the finish linetax pros widen lead over amateurs | pros surge ahead in tax prep | tax pros handle 53% of e-filings | tax pros hold their ground | pros tackle 49% of e-filed returns
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and the good news in the last lap of tax season 2021 is that tax professionals were filing returns at more than three times the rate of do-it-yourselfers. it’s not enough to say that tax professionals have reversed years of declining market share, but in an otherwise horrible year for many, it might count as a small win.

the irs had received 126.8 million individual income tax returns, down 1.1 percent from the same period in 2020, and processed 116 million, up 0.2 percent, as of may 7, the latest data available. that pegged the agency’s processing rate at 91.5 percent.

e-filings

electronic filings were up 2.6 percent at 118.7 million. tax professionals handled 64.4 million of those, up 10.6 percent, and self-preparers submitted 54.2 million, down 5.6 percent.

the gap between pros and diyers stood at 16.2 percentage points, with pros capturing 54.3 percent of the market.

website visits

visits to irs.gov at 1.3 billion were up 18.1 percent.

refunds

refunds numbered 84.8 million, down 3.2 percent, in the total amount of $242.9 billion, down 0.3 percent. the average refund of $2,863 was up 3 percent.

direct deposit refunds numbered 78 million, up 6.6 percent, in the total amount of $228.1 billion, up 7 percent. the average direct deposit refund of $2,932 was up 0.3 percent.

one response to “tax pros retake market share from diyers”

  1. jon baron

    it’s way too early to tell where diy versus “the professionals”. some major diy players have aggressively moved to the “pro-assisted” model which distorts the numbers as it can move diy returns to the professional column. and there are other factors. i’ve followed these numbers for years and there is always noise, but the last few years are a mess. 10 million extra returns last year to file just to get the stimulus checks, different filing start dates and deadlines, and now this year the eitc changes may drive up fillings like the extra 10m last year. i could go on and on. personally, i’m waiting to see the dust settle before commenting further. my last linkin post on the topic can be found here: https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:6791103777987469312/