IRS E-File Opens
IRS today confirmed the opening of their e-file program for 2008 federal income tax returns. The official IRS e-file open date is January 16, 2009.
IRS e-file program began as a pilot project in just 3 cities back in 1986 with just 25,000 tax returns filed electronically that year. Each year the number of tax payers choosing e-file continues to grow, with almost 90 million IRS tax returns e-filed last year according to published IRS statistics.
Among a dozen other things, the IRS also said the following today:
“…the error rate is so low for e-filed returns. In fact, the error rate is significantly reduced from 20 percent with paper returns to about 1 percent with e-filed returns.”
“Taxpayers who use e-file and who choose direct deposit can receive their refund in as few as 10 days. That’s because with e-file, there’s no paper return going to the IRS. And with direct deposit, there’s no paper refund going to the taxpayer.”
So not only does e-file deliver your income tax refund money faster than mail in tax forms, those who e-file usually don’t make any errors. No doubt that income tax preparation software is partly responsible for the reduction in tax form errors. And we must note also that Turbo Tax and Tax Cut are quoting “in as few as 8 days” as the number of days for which you can receive your IRS income tax refund.
Tags: 2008, 2009, efile, federal, form, income, irs, preparation, refund, return, software, tax, taxcut, turbotax