As April 17 deadline looms, more taxpayers e-file from home

Sussex County - The Internal Revenue Service announced this week that taxpayers are continuing to e-file from home computers at a record pace, up almost 17 percent nationwide from the same period last year. New Jersey’s home computer e-filers continue to show strong usage, with nearly 245,000 e-filed returns, reflecting an 18 percent increase compared to last year at this time. The agency also notes strong e-file usage by the New Jersey tax professional community, as over 931,000 returns were already e-filed, showing a 10.4 percent increase in e-filing compared to last year at this time. New Jerseyans have e-filed nearly 1.18 million returns through March 17, a 6.2-percent increase in total e-filed returns to date. “People using tax preparation software is driving the increase in e-filing,” said Mark W. Everson, IRS commissioner. “Taxpayers can rely on e-file as a safe, accurate way to quickly finish their taxes and get a refund.” Nationwide, 70 percent of all returns have been e-filed so far this tax filing season,, compared to 68 percent for the same period last year. As of last Friday, 28 percent of e-filed returns were filed by people using their home computers, up from 25 percent of e-filed returns for the same period last year. More than 13 million returns have been filed this tax season by people e-filing from home, up from just over 11 million for the same period last year. More people than ever before are also choosing to have their tax refunds directly deposited. So far this year, the IRS has directly deposited almost 40 million refunds, or 70 percent of all refunds issued this tax filing season, up from 67 percent of the total for the same period last year. People are also visiting the IRS Web site - IRS.gov - in record numbers. The IRS has recorded almost 84 million visits to the site this year, up from 80 million for the same period last year, an increase of 6.5 percent.