in shorter season, professional e-filings are down only 5.6%.
by beth bellor
year-to-year tax filing statistics stabilized ever so slightly this week, as average refunds slipped out of the red and irs visits backed off a bit in pace.
more: pros tackle 49% of e-filed returns | survey: tax season swings into the red | another tax season from hell? | pros process 44% of tax e-filings | tax professionals report tough slogging | busy season 2021 gets off to weak start
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the internal revenue service had received 93.2 million individual income tax returns as of april 2, down 4.3 percent from the same period in 2020. in releasing the latest available data, the agency noted that the filing season began 18 days later this year, skewing comparisons.
of returns received, 83.7 million had been processed, down 9.5 percent. the processing rate stood at 89.8 percent.
e-filings
of the 93.2 million returns, 88.3 million were filed electronically, down 3.5 percent. tax professionals e-filed 45 million returns, down 5.6 percent from 2020, while self-preparers e-filed 43.3 million, down 1.1 percent.
the pros handled 49 percent of electronic filings.
website visits
visits to irs.gov topped a billion, at 1.07 billion up 147.6 percent.
refunds
the irs has issued 62.3 million refunds, down 15.9 percent, in the total amount of $180.3 billion, down 15.4 percent. the average refund of $2,893 was – wait for it – up 0.5 percent.
direct deposit refunds numbered 58.3 million, down 6 percent, in the total amount of $172.3 billion, down 8.3 percent. the average direct deposit refund of $2,954 was down 2.5 percent.
direct deposit accounted for 93.6 percent of all refunds.
one response to “tax pros hold their ground”
jon baron
comparisons with last year are suspect at best. there is a different due date, and ~10m returns had to be prepared last year that didn’t in previous years just to get a stimulus check. the one-year comparisons used to be valid, but some years have a lot of noise in them like with the tax cuts and jobs act of 2017 when millions came off the tax rolls, in 2013 when preparers were forced to electronically file returns if they had more than 10 to prepare, etc. to take a little bit of noise out of the numbers this year, i have been comparing it to 2019 rather than 2020. if you do that do-it-yourself (diy) returns are up .7%, and professionally prepared returns are down 16.4%. it will come out in the wash at the end of the year, but this one will be like the last 15 or so, where diy continues to take market share.