US: Tax rebate leads more to file returns
Internal Revenue Service representatives said Monday 14th April they were expecting an increase in the number of tax returns filed this year.
The rise is due largely to an extra incentive — being one of the 130 million Americans expected to receive a federally funded rebate intended to encourage increased spending and stimulate the nation’s economy.
The IRS will use tax returns to determine eligibility and assess the amount a person receives, with single filers getting up to USD 600, and couples up to USD 1,200, plus USD 300 per dependent child.
Increased volume this time of year is nothing new for the U.S. Postal Service, which expects to handle around 59 million federal tax returns this year, or 43 percent of all individual returns filed.
Despite the increase of electronic filing in recent years, this year’s overall rise in filings is expected to also raise the number of mailed returns over last year by 3 percent, according to Tim Ratliff, postal service spokesman for the Northern Illinois district.
“Obviously, there is an increase of people filing electronically for all sorts of reasons,” he said. “At the same time, there is still a huge percentage of people that still depend on the postal service to mail their tax returns.”
And as in the past, Ratliff encourages people to file as early as possible but said the postal service has managed to adapt in order to accommodate one of the more exasperating traits in human nature.
Internal Revenue Service representatives said Monday 14th April they were expecting an increase in the number of tax returns filed this year.
The rise is due largely to an extra incentive — being one of the 130 million Americans expected to receive a federally funded rebate intended to encourage increased spending and stimulate the nation’s economy.
The IRS will use tax returns to determine eligibility and assess the amount a person receives, with single filers getting up to USD 600, and couples up to USD 1,200, plus USD 300 per dependent child.
Increased volume this time of year is nothing new for the U.S. Postal Service, which expects to handle around 59 million federal tax returns this year, or 43 percent of all individual returns filed.
Despite the increase of electronic filing in recent years, this year’s overall rise in filings is expected to also raise the number of mailed returns over last year by 3 percent, according to Tim Ratliff, postal service spokesman for the Northern Illinois district.
“Obviously, there is an increase of people filing electronically for all sorts of reasons,” he said. “At the same time, there is still a huge percentage of people that still depend on the postal service to mail their tax returns.”
And as in the past, Ratliff encourages people to file as early as possible but said the postal service has managed to adapt in order to accommodate one of the more exasperating traits in human nature.
Chicagoans felt the pain last year.
According to Intuit, the maker of Turbo Tax products, that city leads the nation in waiting until the last possible days to file income tax returns.
According to a tally of tax returns filed online via the Turbo Tax service last year from April 14 to 17, Chicago was the top procrastinating city in the United States when it came to filing returns.
The deadline for filing a 2007 federal income tax return is tonight at 11:59 p.m.
