refunds top the $100 billion mark.
by beth bellor
with the traditional tax filing deadline back in place, it’s a good thing that the gaps between 2020 and 2021 data points are closing more each week.
more: tax professionals report tough slogging | busy season 2021 gets off to weak start
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the irs had received 55.7 million individual income tax returns as of march 5, the latest data available. this was down 18.1 percent from the same calendar week in 2020, but not an apples-to-apples comparison because the 2021 tax season began 18 days later. it had processed 49 million returns, down 24.7 percent, pegging the current processing rate at 87.9 percent.
e-filings
receipts of electronically filed returns totaled 53.9 million, down 16.8 percent. tax professionals filed 23.9 million of those, down 23.9 percent, while diyers filed 30 million, down 10.1 percent.
tax pros handled 44.4 percent of e-filings.
website visits
visits to irs.gov totaled 555.7 million, up 72.9 percent, the only positive data point.
refunds
the agency had issued 36.1 million refunds, down 31.6 percent, in the total amount of $107.8 billion, down 32.1 percent. the average refund of $2,990 was down 0.7 percent.
there were 34.5 million direct deposit refunds issued, down 26.4 percent, in the total amount of $104.7 billion, down 28.6 percent. the average direct deposit refund of $3,036 was down 3 percent.
direct deposit accounts for 95.7 percent of all refunds.