53M Americans visited tax sites in February

More than 53 million Americans, or roughly one in four active web users, visited tax-related websites in February for help with their returns.

Altogether, Americans raked up 1.4 billion pageviews in February across the top tax sites, according to analytics firm Nielsen. More Americans visited tax websites in February, historically the peak month for online tax activity, than in prior years.

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IRS.gov was the most visited tax site with more than 28 million unique U.S. visitors. TurboTax, from Intuit, came in close second with 25 million unique visitors, and H&R Block rounded out the top three with 19.5 million unique visitors. The latter noticed a 58 percent bump in year-over-year visits.

Web denizens, however, were especially interested in exploring their online tax options this year, as a majority flittered about the web and flirted with multiple sites. Nearly half of all visitors to IRS.gov later visited TurboTax in the same month, and 39 percent also jumped to H&R Block. And college-educated ladies were most likely to turn to the web for help with their taxes, according to Nielsen.

Photo credit: Dave Dugdale/Flickr