Technology Hasn’t Hastened Tax Filings

Federal tax filing is lagging despite the popularity of telephone and computer filing, the Internal Revenue Service said Monday.

Through Feb. 16, the IRS had received 26.2 million tax returns, down 6.5% from the same period a year ago.

But telephone filing--available to eligible taxpayers nationwide for the first time this year--totaled 1.79 million, nearly quadruple last year’s number.

Telephone filing is available to single taxpayers who receive a Telefile package in the mail and who otherwise would use Form 1040EZ. When the filing season began, the IRS had been projecting 3 million of 23 million eligible taxpayers would participate.

Meanwhile, Form 1040PC paper returns prepared by individuals or professional tax preparers using personal computers totaled 1 million, up from 228,000 in 1995.