According to the IRS, of the 155 million tax returns filed, about 58% were filed electronically.

“More people with home computers and businesses embraced electronic filing this year," said IRS Commissioner Doug Shulman. “Every year, more people realize that electronic filing is the safe, accurate way for taxpayers to complete their taxes and get faster refunds.”

While the total number of returns has increased by 23% during the past decade, the number filed electronically has increased by 206%.

This year, almost 27 million returns were filed by individuals from their home computers, up from 22.6 million last year, a 19% increase. Filings from home computers accounted for 30% of all returns e-filed by individuals. Even though individual tax filings were spurred to unprecedented levels by the economic stimulus payments, the percentage of those e-filed increased to 58%.

During 2008, taxpayers with an adjusted gross income of USD54,000 or less, or about 70% of individual taxpayers, had the option of choosing to e-file for free through IRS Free File, a partnership between the IRS and some software manufacturers. Almost 4.8 million tax returns were filed through Free File, an increase of 24% over last year’s total of almost 3.9 million returns.

More taxpayers chose to receive their refunds through direct deposit during 2008. The agency made 66 million direct deposit payments in 2008, up 8% from 61 million payments at the same time in 2007.

Overall, the IRS issued 107 million tax refund payments in 2008, up almost 2% from 105 million refund payments for the same time in 2007. As of October 31, the average refund for 2008 was USD2,371, up 4% from USD2,280 at the same time in 2007.

Businesses also broke e-file records during 2008 by filing almost two million corporate and partnership income tax returns, an increase of more than 50% over the prior year. Partnership e-filings saw the steepest increase. Large partnerships, those with more than 100 partners, e-filed more than 27,000 returns during 2008, up 156% compared to the prior year’s total.

Corporations and partnerships e-filed 1,944,421 tax returns during 2008, up 50% from last year’s total of 1,294,475. The total number for e-filed returns that were not filed by individuals was 3,365,757, up 65% from last year’s total of 2,172,753. This number includes forms e-filed by exempt organizations.