Tax News

CCH (cch.taxgroup.com) reports:

  The 2008 tax filing season set a number of electronic records with over 86 million electronically filed individual tax returns and more than 160 million visits to the IRS website, www.irs.gov. According to IRS Commissioner Doug Shulman, "growth in electronic services helped the IRS deliver a strong filing season for the nation's taxpayers in 2008. The increase in e-file, particularly in the final weeks of the filing season, shows that taxpayers are continuing to recognize the benefits of filing electronically."

  The IRS has received about 4.6 million Free File returns, a 21 percent jump over last year at this time. Free File, available only on IRS.gov, will continue to accept returns through Oct. 15 from taxpayers with incomes of $54,000 or less. In addition, the number of balance-due returns filed electronically has surged 21 percent to over 11.3 million, also a new record.

  This year's economic-stimulus payments helped fuel a 44-percent increase in the number of visits to IRS.gov, the IRS's web site. The nearly 206 million visits included over 8 million visits to the economic stimulus calculator in April.

  The IRS's Customer Account Data Engine (CADE) has processed more than 30 million individual tax returns this year, more than double the number of returns handled by the system during all of last year. CADE is at the heart of the agency's efforts to replace many of its aging account processing systems, and it has dramatically speeded up internal IRS processing. CADE processes refunds on average five days faster than the IRS' legacy tax return processing system.

IR-2008-73,
2008FED ¶46,440

Other References:

 
Code Sec. 6011

  CCH Reference - 2008FED ¶35,141.47

  Tax Research Consultant

  CCH Reference - TRC FILEBUS: 12,306