“IRS has made significant progress increasing e-filing rates, but it still has a way to go until it reaches its 80 percent goal,” the audit found.
Congress looked to give the IRS a hand with its goal in 2009, passing legislation that mandated that tax preparers that file more than 10 individual returns a year must do so electronically.
The IRS is implementing that law in shifts: preparers who expect 100 or more of certain types of returns must e-file in 2011, while those expecting 10 or more in 2012 would then be expected to file electronically.
The audit also reported that the IRS’s legal interpretation of the word “file” caused the agency to reduce its initial e-file prediction for 2011, from 82 percent to 75 percent. And it found that some paid tax preparers were worried that they were not given enough notice about the new regulations.