Procrastinators Hustle to Tax Sites
The imminent U.S. filing deadline pushes traffic to filing and info sites.
The imminent U.S. filing deadline pushes traffic to filing and info sites.
Not surprisingly, Internet users rushed to tax preparation Web sites as the April 15 U.S. tax deadline approached, as research from comScore Networks indicated. But American taxpayers aren’t the only ones visiting the sites – non-U.S. users also seem to participate in the last-minute rush to file, with Taxact.com consistently drawing the most non-U.S. based users.
Additional trends in traffic to tax-related sites, as revealed by comScore:
Nielsen//NetRatings also measured significant growth at tax-related sites as the deadline loomed:
Traffic to Various Tax Sites | |||
---|---|---|---|
Site | Unique Audience Week Ending 3/30 |
Unique Audience Week Ending 4/7 |
Percent Growth |
HRBlock.com | 224,000 | 338,000 | 51% |
TurboTax.com | 365,000 | 534,000 | 46% |
ShopIntuit.com | 144,000 | 194,000 | 35% |
IRS.gov | 967,000 | 1,235,000 | 28% |
Quicken.com | 1,391,000 | 1,737,000 | 25% |
Source: Nielsen//NetRatings, April 2002 |
“Each year, an increasing number of surfers chose to prepare and file their income taxes online, pointing to the fact that transactions such as online tax preparation are becoming more widely accepted by the general public,” said Patrick Thomas, senior Internet analyst, Nielsen//NetRatings. “With just a few days to go before the tax deadline, the Web expedites the filing process and makes tax preparation less burdensome, giving surfers added incentive to e-file.”