The number of returns received by the Internal Revenue Service for the 50 filing days ended April 2 reached 93,203,000, down 4.3 percent from the 97,366,000 received during the 60 days ended April 3, 2020. But instead of closing the gap on last year after pulling within .4 percent a week ago, the number of self-prepared returns fell back.There were 88,285,000 efiles received through April 2, a decline of 3.5 percent from 91,448,000 in last year’s corresponding period.
The pace of efiling for self-preparer returns had continued to close on last year with each weekly report and those were only .4 percent behind 2020 for the season ended March 26. However, for the April 2 report there were 43,293,000 files, 1.1 percent off the 43,776,000 received a year earlier.
Tax professionals efiled 44,992,000 returns for the year reported to date, off 5.6 percent from 47,672,000 from a year ago.
The pace of issuing refunds improved by 3.3 percentage points over the March 26 report. There were 74,055,000 refunds issued this year, off 15.9 percent from 62,305,000. The number as of March 21 was 19.2 percent off last year.
