Title: Adoption of e-filing: the US journey

Authors: Shuming Bai; Kai S. Koong; Fan Wu; Jay Bhuyan

Addresses: College of Business, The University of Texas of the Permian Basin, USA ' Brimmer College of Business and Information Science, Tuskegee University, USA ' Brimmer College of Business and Information Science, Tuskegee University, USA ' Brimmer College of Business and Information Science, Tuskegee University, USA

Abstract: To promote effective tax administration, the United States Congress set a goal of 80% of all tax returns filed electronically by 2007. The deadline was extended to 2012, which saw 69% accomplished. Using time series analysis from 2005 to 2016, this study analyses the advancements of electronic tax filings in the USA. Several interesting observations are reported. First, individual e-filing has reached the goal in 2012. Second, overall trends indicate continuous and steady progress both by volume and by share. Third, the total e-filing ratio shows monotonical increase over the years but is still shy of the target in 2016. Fourth, individual e-filing constitutes the majority while business and tax-exempt e-file comprises 15% of the total. Fifth, employment tax e-file, while constituting over half of business e-file, ranks the lowest due to few mandates. Finally, several strategies and recommendations are proposed to reach the composite target.

Keywords: adoption; businesses; individuals; e-filing; electronic filing; tax returns; USA.

DOI: 10.1504/IJRM.2019.103008

International Journal of Revenue Management, 2019 Vol.11 No.1/2, pp.1 - 22

Received: 11 Oct 2018
Accepted: 28 Oct 2018
Published online: 14 Oct 2019 *

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