Efiled tax returns submitted by professional preparers fell significantly behind the year ago totals in the latest tax season results. Figures from the Internal Revenue Service this week for the season through March 3 show the number of professional filed returns were 11.5 percent behind the total for last year’s season through March 5.

The Internal Revenue Service has extended all tax deadlines through July 15. The action followed increasingly urgent requests for the IRS to match the extension of individual income taxes to the same date.

The American Institute of CPAs has raised the level of urgency on the need for extensions for all filing and payment dates. A later dated April 7 from Barry Melancon, the Institute’s. CEO to Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin sounds a more serious alarm than a March 26 letter from the AICPA on the same subject.