IRS

Tax Pro E-Filings Down 20 Percent

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IRS.gov visits top 1 billion.

By Beth Bellor

With two long months to go in this pandemic-stretched tax season, all the key figures are down, down, down … except visits to the IRS website, of course, and a flat spot for DIYers.

Will business pick up as states reopen? Or are the clients waiting in the wings the ones no one wants?

MORE: IRS Web Traffic Doubles over Year-Ago | COVID Drowns IRS in New Filings | 2020 Tax Season Comes to a Screeching Halt | The Tax Season 2020 Dumpster Fire | Tax Pros Fall Behind 6.2% in Returns Filed | Tax Pros Trail by 908,000 Returns
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The IRS had received 125.5 million individual income tax returns as of the week ending May 1, the latest data available, down 11 percent from the same period one year ago. It had processed 113.1 million returns, down 16.1 percent.
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IRS Web Traffic Doubles over Year-Ago

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data chart
^ Data for the week ending April 24, 2020

As filers seek stimulus checks.

BUSY SEASON BAROMETER
How’s COVID-19 impacting your firm?
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By Beth Bellor

Want a bright spot in the IRS’ weekly updates on tax filings? It’s website traffic, more than double what it was a year ago.

MORE: COVID Drowns IRS in New Filings | 2020 Tax Season Comes to a Screeching Halt | The Tax Season 2020 Dumpster Fire | Tax Pros Fall Behind 6.2% in Returns Filed | Tax Pros Trail by 908,000 Returns | Tax Pro IRS Filings Lag by 532,000 | Tax Pro E-Filings Lag by 512,000 Returns | Tax Pros Kick into High Gear
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Everything else? A sea of red.
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COVID Drowns IRS in New Filings

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data chart
Data for the week ending April 17, 2020.
* Total includes returns filed to obtain Economic Impact Payments by those who would not usually file income tax returns.

Why not? Submissions are way down.

BUSY SEASON BAROMETER
How’s COVID-19 impacting your firm?
Join the survey. Sound off. Get answers.

By Beth Bellor

Coronavirus hit IRS data in a couple of ways this week.

People who don’t ordinarily file income tax returns, but did so to obtain economic impact payments, boosted filings higher than they might have been for the week ending April 17, the latest data. In addition, visits to IRS.gov shot up 77 percent over 2019 – the Get My Payment link surely was part of that picture.

MORE: 2020 Tax Season Comes to a Screeching Halt | The Tax Season 2020 Dumpster Fire | Tax Pros Fall Behind 6.2% in Returns Filed | Tax Pros Trail by 908,000 Returns | Tax Pro IRS Filings Lag by 532,000 | Tax Pro E-Filings Lag by 512,000 Returns | Tax Pros Kick into High Gear | Slow Start for Tax Pro E-filing | Data Points Down as Tax Season Opens | The Fight for New Tax Clients
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The Internal Revenue Service reported receiving 116 million individual income tax returns, down 15.5 percent. It had processed 106.6 million returns, up 18.5 percent.
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The Tax Season 2020 Dumpster Fire

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Coronavirus crushes tax prep.

How’s COVID-19 impacting your Busy Season?
Join the survey. Sound off. Get answers.

By Beth Bellor

Slammed by the COVID-19 crisis, Tax Season 2020 has gone off the rails.

Tax return filing activity is trending down, and who can blame filers? With an automatic three-month extension, those who owe taxes have no incentive to file anytime soon. And practitioners are consumed with protecting their firms and rescuing their clients.

MORE: Tax Pros Fall Behind 6.2% in Returns Filed | Tax Pros Trail by 908,000 Returns | Tax Pro IRS Filings Lag by 532,000 | Tax Pro E-Filings Lag by 512,000 Returns | Tax Pros Kick into High Gear | Slow Start for Tax Pro E-filing | Data Points Down as Tax Season Opens | The Fight for New Tax Clients
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That may be impacting numbers for e-filings by tax professionals, which are down in double digits. Perhaps those whose dealings are complex enough to need assistance are seeking appointments in June now.
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Tax Pro E-Filings Lag by 512,000 Returns

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Data chart
2020 FILING SEASON STATISTICS: Cumulative 3/8/2019 vs. 3/6/2020

As do-it-yourselfers surge by more than a million.

Busy Season Barometer:
How Does This Year’s Busy Season Compare to Last Year’s?
Better,  Worse, or About the Same?

By Beth Bellor

Tax professionals are losing their share of the e-filing market this tax season, dropping to 48.5 percent of all returns e-filed, down slightly more than one percentage point from the same time last year.

More Tax Season 2020:  Tax Season Turns Ugly under Coronavirus | Tech Tools for Working through the Coronavirus  |  What’s NOT to Like about Tax Season?   |  Why ‘Tick and Tie’ Needs to Die   |  Lessons from the Trenches of Tax Season   |  Coronavirus Rattles Tax Season   |  Tax Season Funnies: The ‘Service’ in IRS   |  Can Your Reviewers Answer These 10 Questions?   |  Top Tech Choices for the Virtual Firm  |

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The IRS had received 68 million individual income tax returns as of March 6 – the latest data available – up 0.4 percent from the same period in 2019. The agency had processed 65 million returns, down 0.5 percent.
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Data Points Down as Tax Season Opens

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Data chartDIYs, refunds are up.

The CPA Trendlines Busy Season Barometer: New year, new strategies?
Join the survey. Get the results.

By Beth Bellor

Filings were behind last year’s marks as tax season opened, according to the IRS, and pros handled about 35 percent of e-filings.

MORE: The Fight for New Tax Clients | 5 Tax Review Keys | Treat Review Procedures Like Quality Control |  SURVEY RESULTS: Tax Pros Forecast a Better 2020 |  Can the IRS Enforce the Tax Code? |  Tax Pro’s Upbeat on Cusp of Busy Season |  Use Tax Return Prep for Training and Growth |  IRS Undertakes Overhaul  | All 2020 Tax Season Coverage
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The Internal Revenue Service received 15.8 million individual income tax returns for the week ending Jan. 31 – the first of the season and just five days long – down by 1.6 percent from the year before. It had processed 12.9 million returns, down 2.7 percent, for a processing rate of 82 percent.
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Should the IRS Go Down in History?

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Stock image of businessman pushing a giant stack of documents isolated on white background3 reasons an agency historian would be a good idea.

By CPA Trendlines Research

Karl Marx may have been wrong about workers rising up against their capitalist overlords, but he was right in observing that much of history can be explained by economics.

MORE: 5 Easy Ways That Congress Could Fix Tax Collection | 4 Ways to Fix IRS Collections | Taxpayers Deserve Better Receipts | What’s the Real Impact of IRS Audits?
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If history and economics go hand in hand, it makes sense  that the Internal Revenue Service, an entity through which trillions of dollars pass in a constant flow, should have an in-house historian. Its policies, programs, decisions, managers, records, cases, controversies and artifacts are an important part of American and world history – but only if they survive for historical analysis.
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3 Ways to Improve IRS Levies

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Hand drawing a rainbow-colored 3Because common sense isn’t always common.

By CPA Trendlines Research

There’s a rumor that the pillared citadel of the Internal Revenue Service on Constitution Avenue has a secret room where no one ever goes. It’s the largest room in the building, yet empty save for distant echoes in the dark. The room has a name. It’s called The Room for Improvement.

MORE: How the IRS Abuses ‘Math Errors’ | Taxpayers Deserve Better Receipts | Troubles with IRS Private Debt Collection | What Difference Does One Word Make? | What’s the Real Impact of IRS Audits? | Data Divers Profile Taxpayer Filing Styles
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OK, that’s an exaggeration. The IRS is constantly improving, at least when Congress gives it the funds to do so.

But that doesn’t mean The Room isn’t there.
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