This year the Internal Revenue Service saw the biggest increase ever in the number of Tennesseans using the IRS Free File program.

The IRS noted a nearly 29-percent increase in the number of returns filed through Free File, the agency’s no-cost online filing program.  The agency also noted a nearly 21-percent increase in the number of returns Tennesseans e-filed from their own computers using both Free File and purchased software. 

“Tennesseans definitely caught on to Free File this year,” said IRS spokesman Dan Boone. “E-filing is fast, easy and secure, and with Free File, there’s no cost.”

Free File can be used to file normal tax returns or economic stimulus payment returns and is available to any filer whose 2007 income was $54,000 or less.  E-filing in general is available through Oct. 15.

Through April 17, Tennessee taxpayers e-filed 584,862 returns from their own computers, compared to 485,248 by the same time last year, a 20.5-percent increase.  The number of filers using Free File from their own computers jumped from 96,562 in 2007 to 124,163 this year, a 28.6-percent increase.

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