There were 136,309,000 returns submitted through May 14, compared to 130,496,000  for the period ended May 15, 2010. Meanwhile, the increase in efiles submitted by paid preparers  jumped to 69,718,000 for the most recently reported period, up by nearly 10 million from  59,355,000 a year earlier.

The unprecedented increase in professionally prepared files has been accompanied by an equally unprecedented decline in self-prepared efiles.

Jon Baron, who headed the professional segment for Thomson Reuters’ tax and accounting for 21 years, recently noted the sharp change in filing patterns in a recent LinkedIn post.

“This year may have been the year that totally broke the system. Why? Because of a big push by the DIY companies to establish "hybrid" returns,” wrote Baron, co-founder and head of strategy for Make the Connection. 

In particular, Intuit has shown sharp growth in its Turbo Tax Live, via which taxpayers can seek assistance from tax professionals from within the software. This year, it also launched an aggressive campaign of fully assisted preparation under the program. Last week, Intuit said it expects to report on May 25 that returns prepared through the Live program are up 70 percent over last year.

In a separate communication, Baron noted that last year’s numbers were distorted by the filing of ”10 million extra returns last year filed just to get the stimulus checks, different filing start dates and deadlines, and now this year the ETIC changes may drive up fillings like the extra 10M last year.” 

The total number of efiles jumped 8.4 percent to 127,658,000 from 117,814,000 while the number of self-prepared efiles dropped to  57,940,000, off .9 percent from 58,459,000 for last year’s corresponding period.

There were 88,890,000 refunds issued for the season as reported, an increase of .8 percent from 88,227,000 refunds a year ago.  The average refund was $2,856, a rise of 2.8 percent from $2,778.