The 2017 tax season continued its pattern of reducing the gap with last year's results. And for the season through March 17, the number of returns received by the There were 69,403,000 returns filed for the season to date, compared to 74,456,000 in last year's corresponding period. Meanwhile, the size of the average refund and average refund for direct deposits remained the only figures ahead of 2016 levels. The average 2017 refund of $2,973 was 1 percent higher than last year's $2,945.
Also unchanged was the relative performance of self-prepared efiled returns and those filed with the assistance of a professional. There were 33,657,000 self-prepared efiles for the current season to date. That was down 2.9 percent from 34,654,000 a year ago. That was an improvement from that March 10 total when the category was off 4.7 percent from the prior year.
There were 38,548,000 professionally prepared efiles so far this year, a decline of 7.2 percent from 41,558,000. In the prior report, the category was off from 2016 by 8.2 percent.