With a week to go before the April 15 tax deadline, more than three-fourths of Ohioans have filed their taxes thus far, according to IRS officials.
According to the most recently released data, about 4.2 million of the projected 5.6 million state residents who will file individual tax returns have done so.
More than 3.6 million of those who have filed did so electronically, said Jennifer Jenkins, an Internal Revenue Service spokesman. And of those 3.6 million who filed electronically, about 1.9 million of the returns were prepared and filed by tax professionals working for a client.
Overall, about 76 percent of Ohioans have filed their federal income taxes with just seven days to go.
That is ahead of last year, the IRS spokesman added. Last year at this point only 67 percent of Ohioans had filed their taxes. By the April 15 deadline, just 87 percent of taxpayers in Ohio had filed their taxes.
While more taxpayers seem to be getting their returns filed earlier, they also seem to be in greater need of help to calculate their taxes.
The IRS had severe financial cuts last year and one result was that traditional instruction booklets were in short supply or no longer available at libraries, post offices, or even the IRS offices.
Electronic copies of the booklets were available online and it appears that taxpayers eagerly sought out assistance on the Web.
As of March 20, visits to IRS.gov increased by 11 percent compared with the same time a year ago, totaling 215 million hits on the tax agency’s site.
There were 15 million new visits in the week of March 15. Website visits have been increasing by double-digits every week.
Sharon Roberts, a spokesman for Toledo-area H&R Block tax preparation offices, said it appears more people are seeking tax return assistance because of the addition of tax credits related to the Affordable Care Act.
“People are coming in and working through the ACA credit,” Ms. Roberts said. “Most of them have gotten some type of insurance from the marketplace and now some are having to pay penalties. ...”
Ms. Roberts said she believes there will be a large rush of taxpayers coming this weekend in anticipation of next Wednesday’s deadline.
“I think it’s going to pick up. I’m getting a sense there’s a lot more people who have waited,” Ms. Roberts said.
“And I’m also seeing some who just kind of forgot to file,” she said. “I think there’s a lot of them still out there that have waited, but I’ve also had some clients call and say, ‘Oh my gosh, I forgot about my taxes.’ ”
Contact Jon Chavez at: jchavez@theblade.com or 419-724-6128.
First Published April 8, 2015, 4:00 a.m.
