"Everson, in remarks prepared for a House hearing, said the tax agency had issued 50.5 million refunds out of the 60.9 million returns received as of March 10, for a total of $128.7 billion. He said the average refund was up about $125 from last year."

"The IRS expects to process about 136 million individual tax returns in 2007. Everson said that about three-fourths of those already filed were done electronically, an increase of about 5 percent over the same period last year. More than 13.3 million e-filed from their personal computers."

"Everson noted that those who file electronically can usually have their refund deposited directly into their bank accounts in two weeks or less, about half the time it takes to process a paper return."

"So far, the IRS has directly deposited more than 39 million returns, up 73 percent from the same period in 2006."

"The IRS has also recorded 83.4 million visits to its Web site, a 9 percent increase, to get information on such issues as the Free File program for lower income taxpayers, the Earned Income Tax Credit and
... read the whole article