With Congress and the industry focusing on the backlog of unprocessed returns from last year, everyone is likely to keep an eye on the rate of processing this year.

This year, tax season began two weeks earlier than in 2021 so cumulative totals rose sharply in most categories reported by the IRS. There were 26,421,000 returns received for this year’s report period, up 28 percent from 23,438,000 a year earlier. There were 20,645,000 returns processed so far in 2022, rising 59.5 percent from the comparable period in 2021.

There were 25,625,000 efiles returns, an increase of 30.5 percent from 19,689,000 last year. Professionals have submitted 9,598,000, up 39.95 percent from 6,859,000. DIYers submitted 16,029,000 efiles for 2022 to date, growing 24.9 percent from 12,830,000 a year ago.