Nashville, TN – IRS e-file has reached a major milestone as it passed the one billion mark for individual tax returns processed safely and securely since 1986 nationwide.
The Internal Revenue Service’s electronic filing program started as a pilot project in 1986 and became available nationally in 1990. Prior to the April 18th deadline, IRS e-file passed another high point as more than 100 million individual tax returns were e-filed during the 2011 filing season.
Through June 2nd, nearly 2.2 million returns have been e-filed by Tennesseans this year. That is an increase of 13.3 percent over this time last year. Nearly 853,000 Tennesseans prepared and e-filed their own returns, an increase of 13.6 percent over last year.
“Tennesseans and filers nationwide realize that IRS e-file is a good deal,” said IRS spokesman Dan Boone. “E-file delivers faster refunds and more accurate tax returns and is available free for most filers through the Free File program at IRS.gov.”
Taxpayers can e-file through their tax preparers, through commercial software they use to prepare their own returns or through Free File, the free tax software and e-file program offered through www.IRS.gov.
Congress originally set an 80 percent goal for the electronic filing of federal tax and information returns back in 1998. E-file is now very close to that mark. Currently, more than 79 percent of taxpayers have used e-file to submit their tax returns so far this year.
