The profile of this year’s tax return has settled into a pattern. Self-prepared returns are leading the way to slight growth in the total number filed while those from tax professionals lag the 2013 season. That is the general picture for statistics released this week by the The number of returns filed during that period hit 75.1 million, an increase of three-tenths of a percent over the 2103 tax season through March 15. There were 29.6 million self-prepared returns efiled in the tax season to date, an increase of 5.9 percent. Tax professionals efiled 39.4 million, a drop of 1.8 percent.
The number of refunds, amount refunded and average refunds also continued up over the corresponding period in the 2013 tax season. 61.6 million refunds have been issued, up 2.3 percent over the prior year while $179.8 billion has been return to taxpayers, a hike of 4.2 percent. The average refund of $2,917 is 1.9-percent higher than a year earlier.