Projo Biz Blog

There's been a 14-percent increase in the number of Rhode Islanders filing their federal income-tax returns online -- to 311,351 so far this year compared with 272,070 at the same point last year, the Internal Revenue Service says.

So far this year, about 235,100 individual federal income-tax returns from Rhode Island were filed electronically by tax professionals, a 13-percent increase over last year; about 76,200 individuals prepared and filed their own returns online, a 19-percent increase over last year, IRS spokeswoman Peggy Riley said.

"As people feel more comfortable doing things on the Internet, it's just natural that they would file their returns that way, too," Riley said.

The number of paper returns filed from Rhode Island also increased, to 251,919 so far this year, up from 227,685 at the same point last year, a 10.6-percent jump. (Many older residents and others -- who do not normally file a return -- filed this year, many of them using paper, to obtain a rebate under the federal economic stimulus program.)

Overall, about 55 percent of all individual returns filed from Rhode Island so far this year were filed electronically; nationwide, electronic filing accounted for about 58 percent of all individual returns, the IRS said.

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