That compared to a .1 percent improvement through March 6. There were 76,191,000 returns for the current season, compared to 75,881,000 in last year’s corresponding period.

The number of efiled returns through March 13 was 72,309,000, an increase of .7 percent from 71,815,000 in last year’s corresponding period. The number submitted by paid preparers continued to improve with 36,336,000 efiles from that source, off 1.4 percent from 36,868,000, a year earlier. But  that was better than the -1.9 percent for the prior report. The 35,973,000 self-prepared efiles were 2.9-percent higher than the 34,947,000 a year ago, a slip from 3.1 percent for the March 6 report.

The government has issued 59,235,000 refunds for the season reported to date, a decline of 1.1 percent from 59,916,000 through March 15, 2019.