IRS individual tax returns e-filed

Between 2002 and 2022, more Americans e-filed their taxes and more American young adults lived with their parents, and the two curves have climbed together (r = 0.957) in a combination that reads like a brief economic history of the early 21st century. The W-2 is uploaded from the childhood bedroom. TurboTax asks about dependents. TurboTax is told, after a pause, that the filer is one.

IRS individual e-filed returns grew from about 47 million in 2002 to over 152 million by 2022, as the mandate and the software industry made paper filing the minority practice; the share of 18-29 year-old Americans living with parents rose from about 27% in 2002 to a peak of 52% during the pandemic before settling around 45% by 2022. Both are structural consequences of an economy that automated the administrative tasks of adulthood while making the structural costs of adulthood — housing, childcare, a car — rise faster than wages. The average young adult living with parents in 2022 saved about $18,000 per year in rent, which is slightly more than the IRS's average tax refund of $3,100.

A 1040 is e-filed. A young adult heats dinner in a parent's kitchen. Both conditions common enough not to be remarked on.