Mass. will require more e-filing on taxes

BOSTON – The Mass. Department of Revenue last week issued a draft regulation that would require income tax preparers expecting to file more than 10 returns in a calendar year to file those returns electronically.
The existing rule, which was established in 2004, required tax preparers filing 100 or more returns annually to file electronically. Before that, the threshold was 200 returns.
The new, lower threshold of more than 10 is proposed to take effect Jan. 1, 2012, and would parallel an Internal Revenue Service electronic-filing threshold taking place on that date.
The department said that it couldn’t say precisely how many additional tax returns would be filed electronically under this new rule. However, it said, the rule would ensure continued growth in electronic filing, which increased by 10 percent in tax year 2010 over the previous year.
Just among tax practitioners, the number of returns filed electronically increased by 153,983, going from 1.66 million in 2009 to 1.82 million in 2010. &#8226