Tax Dept: E-filing at all-time high

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Thomas H. Mattox, New York state commissioner of Taxation and Finance has announced that, as of the end of April, 87 percent of taxpayers had e-filed their personal income tax returns.

More than 7.9 million taxpayers e-filed their personal income tax returns by the deadline this year — a 200,000 increase over last year.

“E-filing is the easiest and most secure way to file tax returns, and results in the fastest refunds,” Mattox said. “It also saves tax dollars — since 2008 New York taxpayers have saved over $250 million dollars in processing costs as a result of electronic filing.”

In addition to being much less resource-intensive than paper returns, e-filed returns can be processed and checked for accuracy significantly faster which means refunds can be issued much more quickly to taxpayers who e-file, particularly in light of the Tax Department’s commitment to reviewing each return before issuing a refund – a model being pursued by other states.

By the end of April, more than 5.3 million personal income tax refunds were issued totaling $4.75 billion.  By the same date last year, 5.2 million refunds had been paid for a total of $4.26 billion.