With the year past the middle of tax season, filing statistics continued to improve over 2018. The average refund for this year through March 1 was $3,046, a .7-percent increase over $3,068 for the period through March 2, 2018. That was an improvement from a .1-percent rise through February 22.The Internal Revenue Service reported receiving 59,223,000 returns for this season to date, compared to 61,150,000 a year ago, a decline of 3.2 percent over last year’s corresponding period. A week ago, the change year-over-year was a decline of 35 percent.
Efiled returns improved similarly ending the reporting period at 56,494,000, down 2.2 percent from 57,794,000 a year earlier. Professionals submitted 27,017,000 efiled returns, a decline of 5.8 percent for 28,688,000 for the year ago period through March 2.
Self-prepared efiles improved their already positive status from a week ago. There were 29,477,000 self-prepared efiles for the year reported to date, an increase of 1.3 percent from 29,106,000 for last year’s corresponding period. The total was up .9 percent year-over-year as of the February 22 report.