Fast, secure and free to many, online filing of federal income tax returns by Tennesseans in 2010 is expected to increase, an official says.
Total returns e-filed in Tennessee in 2009 was 1.95 million, and that figure is slated to surpass 2 million this year, said IRS spokesman Dan Boone.
In Georgia, e-filing is “hugely popular” with the state among the top users nationally, said IRS spokesman Mark Green.
Out of 4 million returns filed last year in Georgia, about 3 million were done electronically, he said.
In just the first 15 days that e-filing was offered in 2010, Georgians e-filed 1.2 million returns, Mr. Green said.
Mr. Boone said e-filing enables taxpayers who use direct deposit to see their refunds sooner — in about 10 days or less. In addition, error rates of returns e-filed are extremely low, he said.
“It’s also very secure,” Mr. Boone said.
For people whose household income is $57,000 or less, filers can go to IRS.gov and use its free filing program, he said.
Mr. Green said e-filing also is environmentally friendly. It’s estimated e-filing cost about 35 cents in energy. For people filing paper returns, it costs about $2.87 to process, he said.