IR-2014-44, April 3, 2014 WASHINGTON — As of March 28, the Internal Revenue Service has received 82 million returns through e-file, about 91 percent of returns filed this year. Only about 9 percent, 8.3 million returns, were filed on paper. The IRS expects to receive about 148 million individual income tax returns this year and projects that 23 million returns will be on paper, down 7 percent from last year’s total of 25 million paper returns. IRS e-file has accomplished many goals, including reducing the amount of paper the government must process. This reduction of paper processing allows the agency to be more efficient and use valuable resources to address other critical work. The IRS reminds taxpayers that e-file is the safest, fastest and easiest way to submit their individual tax returns. Since 1990, taxpayers have e-filed more than 1 billion Form 1040 series tax returns safely and securely. [The filing season statistics table follows.] Follow the IRS on New Media Subscribe to IRS Newswire 2014 FILING SEASON STATISTICS Cumulative statistics comparing 3/29/13 and 3/28/14 Individual Income Tax Returns: 2013 2014 % Change Total Receipts 90,244,000 90,761,000 0.6 Total Processed 85,039,000 89,127,000 4.8 E-filing Receipts: TOTAL 80,991,000 82,440,000 1.8 Tax Professionals 49,214,000 48,787,000 -0.9 Self-prepared 31,777,000 33,654,000 5.9 Web Usage: Visits to IRS.gov 247,990,560 222,397,053 -10.3 Total Refunds: Number 72,231,000 73,035,000 1.1 Amount $201.502 billion $206.785 billion 2.6 Average refund $2,790 $2,831 1.5 Direct Deposit Refunds: Number 61,133,000 61,223,000 0.1 Amount $180.868 billion $180.687 billion -0.1 Average refund $2,959 $2,951 -0.2