Internal Revenue Service statistics show 141,531,000 returns filed from the beginning of the 2018 season through May 13, compared to 139,586,000 for the season through May 12, 2017. The 2018 total is .9 percent greater than the 140,250,000 returns filed through May 13, 2016.

The other story for recent tax seasons is the continuing growth of the self-prepared market. There were 53,929,000 self-prepared efiles for the most recently ended period, 42.3 percent of the total 126,040,000 to date in 2018. In 2017, there were 51,997,000 self-prepared efiles out of  123,737,000, or 42 percent of the total.

During the similar period in 2013 there were 43,469,000 efiled returns, which represented 38.3 percent of the total 113,549,000 efiles. That means in five years, the number of self-prepared efiles has risen by 4 percentage points. That’s a 10-percent gain over that period.

Bob Scott

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Bob Scott has provided information to the tax and accounting community since 1991, first as technology editor of Accounting Today, and from 1997 through 2009 as editor of its sister publication, Accounting Technology. He is known throughout the industry for his depth of knowledge and for his high journalistic standards.  Scott has made frequent appearances as a speaker, moderator and panelist and events serving tax and accounting professionals. He  has a strong background in computer journalism as an editor with two former trade publications, Computer+Software News and MIS Week and spent several years with weekly and daily newspapers in Morris County New Jersey prior to that.  A graduate of Indiana University with a degree in journalism, Bob is a native of Madison, Ind