but filing remains sluggish and tax pro market share loses 1.5 million filers.
busy season barometer
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by beth bellor
卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间
four weeks into tax filing season, we’re seeing some positives.
more: tax refund fury roils busy season | tax pro efiling drops 12.5% after shutdown | tax shops bulk up for big busy season | 16 big questions for tax season
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is it a misleading positive because we’re just now seeing refunds that include the eitc and child tax credit? mmm, maybe. but after a gloomy first few weeks, we might be willing to take whatever good news we can get.
“we’re definitely off to a slower start this year.,” cpa and financial planner brian blanton in carmel, ind., tells the 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间 busy season barometer. “clients are behind in sending in tax information compared to last year.”
for the week ending feb. 22, the most recent statistics available, we have numbers in the black for refunds (both total and direct deposit), self-prepared e-filings and irs website visits.
cpa bernard t. wildenberg in mamaroneck, n.y., tells the 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间 busy season barometer, “more people are confused about how to handle the new laws.” and he’s seeing “pricing pressure for federal and state non-itemizers.”
“data for us is just starting to come in,” says the managing shareholder of a six-partner firm in scottsdale, ariz. “most clients had to wait for broker statements. w are working on the flow-through entities and those are about the same.”
in plymouth, minn., a tax director at a seven-partner firm is grappling with “delays in the work coming in” late or broken updates to their tax prep software.
in sturgis, s.d., the sole owner of an eight-person firm is facing problems on multiple fronts: “software! new tax law changes! refunds much less!”
the internal revenue service reports receiving 49.9 million individual income tax returns, down 3.5 percent from the same period in 2018. it had processed 47.7 million returns, down 4.6 percent. that pegs the processing rate at 95.6 percent.
e-filings
of total returns, 95.9 percent have been e-filed. total e-filings so far are 47.9 million, down 2.7 percent. of those, tax professionals have handled 21.9 million, down 6.7 percent, while self-preparers have e-filed 26 million, up 0.9 percent.
tax pros have processed 45.7 percent of this year’s e-filings, an uptick from the previous week’s 43.2 percent.
website visits
visits to irs.gov at 232.6 million were up 9.1 percent.
refunds
refunds totaled 38.6 million, down 4.8 percent, with a total amount of $121.2 billion, down 3.6 percent. the average refund of $3,143 was up 1.3 percent. keep in mind that artificial eitc/child tax credit bump, though; let’s see if the news is as rosy next week.
direct deposit refunds totaled 36.3 million, down 3.7 percent, with a total amount of $117.2 billion, down 2.9 percent. the average direct deposit refund of $3,226 was up 0.8 percent.