March 31, 2005

State reports on tax filing

Electronic filing statistics show strong growth

With April 15 just around the corner, the Franchise Tax Board (FTB) had received nearly one-third of its expected volume of tax returns by March 15, according to the FTB.

“More Californians are filing their taxes electronically and realizing that tedious hand-written forms are a thing of the past,” said State Controller and FTB Chair Steve Westly.

Through March 15, taxpayers had filed nearly 5.6 million state returns, 4.2 million of which were e-filed. Of the e-filed returns, professional tax preparers submitted 3.5 million and 695,000 were filed online by taxpayers.

More than 84,000 tax returns have been submitted through the FTB’s CalFile service, a no fee, direct-to-government e-file service. Refunds total 3.9 million for $2.4 billion averaging $600.

In total, more than 14.4 million personal income tax returns will be filed this year. The benefits of using e-file include quick refunds within seven days, fewer errors, and acknowledgement that the FTB received the return.

Taxpayers can visit the FTB’s Web site at www.ftb.ca.gov to find all e-file services including CalFile. Also on hand is information on this year’s taxes, answers to frequently asked questions, and all other e-services such as the ability to check the status of payments, balances due, refunds, and use electronic methods to pay their taxes. For quick refunds, taxpayers should request direct deposit, which allows the state controller to deposit refunds directly into bank accounts.