There were 57,794,000 electronically filed returns for the season as reported, up .6 percent from 57,435,000 a year ago.         

Self-prepared returns continued to drive totals. Do-It-Yourselfers efiled 29,106,000 returns, a 3.4- percent increase from 28,142,000. Efiled returns submitted by paid preparers continued to lag 2017 totals, falling 2.1 percent to 28,688,000 for the 2018 season as reported, compared to 29,293,000 in last year’s corresponding period. However, that was an improvement from the prior report when professionally prepared returns were 3.4 percent behind 2017.

The number of refunds issued remained behind last year. The IRS said there were 48,452,000 refunds this year, off 1.8 percent from 49,352,000 a year ago. However, the average refund rose to $3,046, a 1-percent increase from $3,106.

Direct deposits were even further behind 2017. There were 43,549,000 refunds directly deposited this year, down 2.8 percent from 44,822,000. That represented a downturn from the season through February 23  when the number of directly deposits reported were 1 percent down from a year earlier.