An overwhelming majority were filed electronically.
Annapolis, Md (KM). The tax returns keep on coming into the Maryland Comptroller’s Office. As of Thursday morning, the agency says 1.1-million returns have been processed; 95% of them came in electronically.
“We’re a month or so into the tax season. And I wanted to make sure people knew that despite the government shutdown a couple of months ago, {and} all of the confusion and uncertainty, we’re up and running. We’ve processed a million returns. We have another two-and-a-half million to go,” says Comptroller Peter Franchot.
The one-millionth electronic return processed by the Comptroller’s Office was filed by a Frederick County taxpayer.
Over the years, the Comptroller’s Office has encouraged citizens to file their tax returns electronically, and the number of citizens who file on line has grown. Last year, the Comptroller’s Office says it processed more than 2.7-million returns which were filed electronically. The agency says electronic filers represents 85% of the 3.2-million income tax returns filed last year.
The deadline to file your 2018 tax return is April 15th, 2019.
If you haven’t filed your return yet, Franchot urges you to get started as soon as possible. “Don’t procrastinate,” he says. “There’s a lot of fraud out there, stolen financial identities. You don’t want someone filing ‘your tax return’ ahead of you.”
Even though a lot of people file electronically, there are still some who still send in paper returns. If they need assistance, Franchot says they can “go into our branch office up there in Frederick–or in Hagerstown–and make sure that we look over your paper return. We’ll do that for free, and give you any perspective that we can on that.”
The Comptroller’s Office in Frederick is located near the County Court House, and is open Monday through Friday from 8:30 AM until 4:30 PM. Citizens can also go on line to marylandtaxes.gov, or call the Comptroller’s Office at 1-800-MD-TAXES (1-800-638-2937).
By Kevin McManus