The State of Maryland has stopped accepting tax returns from 20 preparers in the last week. That brings the total to 74 who have submitted what the state says is a high volume of suspicious returns.

The number of refunds and amount of dollars issued to taxpayers through the tax season through March 30 remained down from totals through March 31, 2017.  Efiles by paid preparers also remained behind the 2017 season for the compared periods. But total returns received and processed have now shown an increase over a year ago for three consecutive weekly reports.

The state of Maryland has stopped processing electronic tax returns for 54 preparers during the current tax season. Comptroller Peter Franchot said late last month his office has blocked returns from 20 more tax preparers at 24 locations in Maryland, Virginia, Texas and California, in addition to 34 previously flagged.