As the tax year approaches its end in the US, electronic tax filing activity is beginning to soar. Traffic to IRS.gov jumped 350% to almost 3 million unique visitors in January and almost a third of these visitors were 25- to 34-year-old Generation X'ers, according to data from the NetValue research firm in New York, at http://www.netvalue.com.
"These findings further reinforce that Gen Xers are very comfortable using the Internet for all aspects of their life and, that at the time they began receiving their tax documents in January, the data seems to indicate Gen Xers looked to the Internet as a prime tax reference," said Jim Hatch, President NetValue.
Nearly 32% of IRS.gov visitors were 25- to 34-year-olds compared to just 19.2% of the general Internet population.
Women also made extensive use of the IRS.gov site, accounting for more than 54% of the audience on IRS.gov.
Overall, the IRS estimates that more than 35.3 million taxpayers will file online this year, representing approximately one third of all individual income tax filers and an increase of 20% over the number who filed online last year.
Another research firm, Gartner Inc, warns the IRS to get ready for a surge of young e-filers who don't have a lot of experience filing taxes, let alone filing them online.
According to the Gartner surveys, 83% of previous e-filers say they are very likely to file online in the future. The average e-filer is a knowledgeable Internet user (online three or more days per week), is between the ages of 25 and 34, and is male.
One step that the IRS has taken to make the process of filing online easier is allowing taxpayers to choose their own personal identification numbers (PINs). In the past it was necessary to pre- register with the IRS to obtain a PIN, and the "self-selection process requires less time, effort and planning by taxpayers and thus motivates more taxpayers to file online," said Christopher Baum, vice president and research director for Gartner.
Gartner also recommends that the IRS encourage additional e-filing by reducing or eliminating the average $13 fee that its third-party partners charge to e-file federal and state taxes. In addition, the 2.5% convenience fee added for paying with credit cards should be removed, which Gartner claims are essentially taxes to pay taxes.
"It is unfair to charge taxpayers more to file online when the IRS will gain significant savings in processing costs through e-filing," Baum said.
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