Today is the final day for procrastinators to file their 2012 tax returns. The Internal Revenue Service has pushed back the filing deadline by two days, giving a little extra time for those still feverishly working on their tax returns. While the rush to the Post Office at the last minute to get that April 17th cancellation mark might have been something of an all day event in the past, the overwhelming shift in filing preferences to electronic means has altered that landscape considerably.
According to the IRS website, since electronic filing debuted in 1990, more than 1 billion tax returns have been e-filed. In 2011, 112 million people filed their returns electronically. That’s 77% of all individual returns filed in the United States last year. If those returns had been mailed to the IRS instead of e-filed, the Postal Service would have seen a minimum of $49.3 million in additional revenue for 2011.
The trend towards e-filing shows no signs of slowing down. Every year, tax-filers are bombarded with advertising by the IRS, tax preparation software companies, and the lure of a speedier turn-around-time for refunds. The number of returns mailed in the future will likely dwindle even further as these lures tempt more individuals to e-file their returns.
Given the continuing decline in hard copy tax returns coursing through the mail stream, can you think of a way for the Postal Service to recapture a share of those electronically filed returns? Comment here.
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