Tax Return Submissions Down 13% After IRS Delays Filing Deadline

The number of tax returns that individual taxpayers have filed is down nearly 13% compared to the same period in the filing season last year, after the Internal Revenue Service extended the deadline three months because of the coronavirus pandemic, according to agency data.

• Taxpayers had filed nearly 104 million tax returns as of April 10, compared to 119.4 million a year ago
• The agency expects to receive about 155 million returns in total
  • NOTE: IRS has extended the filing and payment deadline to July 15
• The number of electronically filed returns prepared by tax professionals fell about 20% and those that were self-prepared fell by only about 4%, indicating people may be opting to do their taxes themselves during the coronavirus outbreak, rather than consulting a professional

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Laura Davison in Washington at ldavison4@bloomberg.net

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Joe Sobczyk at jsobczyk@bloomberg.net

Vivek Shankar

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