Business First Family Business, Accounting, Finance, Investing, Marketing And Management
Everyone is at least somewhat interested in finance come tax time, whether out of excitement for their tax returns or fear of the money they owe the IRS. However, CPAs like you certainly have a a vested interest, especially in learning IRS tax filing statistics for the previous year. This will help you prepare your tax business for next year’s tax season. Keep reading below to learn IRS tax filing statistics from 2016 tax filing season.
152,250,000 Tax Returns Filed
Last year, exactly 152,250,000 individual tax returns were filed. This is an increase from the previous year, 2015. In fact, it is almost an entire percentage point more than were filed in 2015. If this IRS tax filing statistic trend continues, expect even more returns to be filed for the 2017 fiscal year.
131,851,000 E-Files
In the 2016 tax season, of the 152,250,000 tax returns that were filed, 131,851,000 of those were e-filed. E-filed tax returns accounted for over 87% of all tax return filings. That means just 13% of returns were paper tax returns, which definitely helps to increase efficiency for your accounting business. This is a tax filing statistic from the IRS that could greatly impact future availability of paper returns. You would be wise to keep this in mind.
DIY E-Filings
Do-it-yourself methods of e-filing tax returns increased dramatically in the 2016 tax filing season. These DIY tax preparations increased by 5.4% overall. Unfortunately for a CPA like yourself, tax professional e-filings increased by just .4% in comparison. This is a slightly frightening IRS tax filing statistic. If this trend continues, you may find your office far less busy come 2018 tax filing season.
Tax Professionals vs. Self-Prepared Taxes
Despite the growing trend of preparing taxes on your own, tax professionals still prepared the majority of all 2017 tax filings. 53,11,000 tax returns were prepared by individuals on their own. However, tax professionals prepared 78,736,000 tax returns for 2016, beating out the competition by quite a bit. Just remember to stay on your A-game so that your tax season clients do not choose to take the DIY tax returns route for the next fiscal year.
80% Direct Deposit
80% of all tax refunds were direct deposited for the 2016 tax season. Tax filing statistics like this are unsurprising. Why would anyone wait for a check in the mail when they can have access to their tax refund money as soon as it is released by the IRS? You may want to encourage clients to take advantage of the direct deposit option during next year’s tax filing season.
If you are a professional tax preparer, you are probably a bit more interested in tax filing season than the average person, just as you are more interested in finance vs lease debates than your friends are. These IRS tax filing statistics should be particularly of interest to you. Knowledge of these tax filing trends can help you prepare for the next fiscal year end. Remember to stay current on all the latest tax filing stats in order to best serve your clients and keep them returning every tax season year after year.
Photo from https://ftbtaxservices.com/filing-season-statistics/
I’ve learn some just right stuff here.