Washingtonians may not like filing taxes, but they sure like electronic filing. More than 70 percent of returns are now filed electronically, the Washington State Department of Revenue says.

The agency reports that nearly 1.3 million of 1.8 million state tax returns were filed electronically this fiscal year. That's a 30 percent jump over the prior year.

Also, almost three-quarters of all excise taxes are paid electronically.

All that reduction in paperwork helps the state operate more efficiently, and it helps businesses make fewer errors, Revenue Director Cindi Holmstrom said.

E-filing got a big boost last year when the Legislature passed a bill requiring the largest businesses, which report on a monthly basis, to file and pay returns electronically. Most already were doing so, but the law brought in all the rest.

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