The numbers ought to improve from the statistics reported by the Internal Revenue Service for the period ended April 13. After all, after the agency’s computer systems went down and came back up on Tuesday April 17, the IRS said 14 million returns had been filed by 9 a.m. Wednesday, April 18.However, compared to the period ended April 14, 2017, returns processed fell back by .2 percent to 114,817,000, from 115,069,000. The pace of receiving returns stayed the same is in recent reports. The IRS said it received 118,580,000 for the season as reported to date, an increase of .1 percent from 118,463,000 in last year’s corresponding period.
There were 109,006,000 efile returns through April 13, a rise of .4 percent from 108,559,000. Paid professionals maintained the previous’ weeks pace. Pros efiled 62,975,000 returns, down .4 percent from 63,357,000. That was the same return for the prior week’s reported.
Self-prepared returns slowed. Do-It-Yourselfers filed 46,031,000 , an increase of 1.8 percent from 45,202,000 in last year’s comparable period. That was down from a 2.2-percent rise for the prior report.