Filing by Phone a Hit with Taxpayers

WASHINGTON - TeleFile, the new Internal Revenue Service product that allows taxpayers to file by telephone, is a runaway hit. A month before the April 15 filing deadline, TeleFile volume had hit 95 percent of what was projected for the entire year and one-third of the states had already exceeded those projections.

During the week ending March 15, every state but one surpassed the TeleFile projection for that week. Returns arrived from Massachusetts at triple what was expected. Returns from New Jersey, Pennsylvania and South Dakota came in at double the anticipated rate. The only state falling short was Alaska, with 87 percent of the week's projection.

"TeleFile is a hit," said IRS Commissioner Margaret Milner Richardson, "and we anticipate bigger numbers next year when we make this option available to a larger group of taxpayers."

This year, TeleFile was available to more than 20 million taxpayers who had income of less than $50,000 and otherwise would have filed Form 1 1040EZ. By March 15, nearly 2.4 million had made the short phone call needed to file their tax information.

TeleFile saves taxpayers time and the IRS money. It is cheaper to process and more accurate than the use of traditional paper forms.

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