Do-it-yourself tax preparation showed continued strength as the Internal Revenue Service issued statistics for tax season through February 7. The total was up by 3.5 percent over the period ended Feb. 8, 2019 while professionally filed returns dropped by 3.7.This week’s IRS report was the second of the season, but reflected the first full week as the initial report included only four days of filing Total returns of 28,662,000 were off by .4 percent from last year’s total of 28,764,000. Total efies of 27,774,000 were .6 percent higher than the 27,602,000 received in last year’s comparable period.
The growth came from self-prepared returns as professionally prepared efiles fell 10,592,000 from 11,001,000 for the compared period in 2019. Self-prepared efiles rose to 17,182,000 from 16,601,000
The IRS reports 10,837,000 refunds issued through February 7, down 4.8 percent from 11,381,000 refunds a year ago. Average refunds of $1,952 edged up by $3 or .2 percent from $1,949.
