Online tax filing booms

More taxpayers than ever are filing their federal returns online this year, the IRS said last month.

Through March 19, taxpayers filed more than 43 million 2003 returns electronically, an 11.4 percent increase from 2003, the IRS said. Of these, nearly 10 million returns have been self-prepared on a home computer and submitted through the IRS' online filing system, called e-file.

In 2002, taxpayers filed 53 million returns electronically, according to the IRS.