But professional efiles improved by 5.4 percentage points over the total reported for the season ended March 26. The pros submitted 39,926,000 efiles, off 10.3 percent from 44,501,000 in last year’s corresponding period. The category was off by 15.7 percent for the period reported through March 19.

There were 85,005,000 returns received by the Internal Revenue Service for the season to date, a decline of 6.2 percent from 90,617,000 for the longer corresponding period in the 2020 tax season.

Overall, there were 80,835,000 received, a decline of 5.5 percent from 85,559,000. DIYers had 40,909,000 efiles submitted, a drop from 41,058,000 a year ago.

The number of refunds remained down double digits with 56,494,000 issued for the tax season as reported, off 19.2 percent from 69,931,000 a year earlier.

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