Ohio ready to receive electronic tax returns

COLUMBUS (AP) — Tax season has arrived in Ohio, as the state’s Department of Taxation is accepting 2011 state returns filed by computer or phone.

Officials announced the kick-off for electronic filing today. The tax department says in a news release that about 80 percent of taxpayers now get their returns in electronically.

The department says refunds are deposited in a taxpayer’s bank account within a week, much more quickly than with a paper return.

The state has stopped mailing paper tax forms and booklets to individual Ohioans, to save more than $1 million annually. Officials say more than 97 percent of the forms sent last year were never used.

The paper tax materials can still be picked up at libraries, banks and post offices.