There were 52,096,000 received for the most recently ended period, compared to 51,740,000.

But that represented an improvement over the 1.8 percent lag for the previous statistical report. The gap between this season and last season has narrowed in each of the reports issued since the first number were released for the period ended February 2.

The number of efiled returns received reached 49, 371,000, down .4 percent  from 49,192,000 a year earlier.

As has been true over the last few years, the number self-prepared returns submitted rose over the prior year’s statistics while the number filed by tax professionals fell. There were 23,438,000 professionally prepared returns submitted through February 24, a drop of 3.2 percent from 24,220,000 for the comparable period in 2017. Self-prepared efiles rose by 2.4 percent to 25,754,000 from 25,151,000.

The number of refunds fell to 40,504,000, down 2.2 percent from 41,427,000. However, the average refund increased to $3,071, an increase of 1 percent from $3,071.