WASHINGTON — The Internal Revenue Service is postponing the furlough day scheduled for Friday, Aug. 30, due to its successful ongoing efforts to cut costs. In early September, the IRS will reevaluate the need for an additional furlough day before the federal fiscal year ends on Sept. 30.

As a result, IRS offices will be open as usual. This means that all toll-free services, including theTaxpayer Advocate Service, will follow their regular Friday schedule, as will many of the agency’s taxpayer assistance centers (TAC) nationwide. However, because help may be limited or unavailable at some locations, the IRS highly recommends taxpayers check IRS.gov for office hours and services offered at the location they plan to visit before making the trip on Aug. 30.

Taxpayers can often get the tax information they need or resolve a tax problem without having to call or visit an IRS office. A wide variety of web-based online tools and phone-based automated services are available including Where’s My Refund?, the Online Payment Agreement, Withholding Calculator, Order A Transcript, EITC Assistant, Interactive Tax Assistant, Tele-Tax, the Online Look-up Tool for those needing to repay the first-time homebuyer credit and the online preparer tax identification number PTIN system for tax professionals. Visit online tools on IRS.gov to learn more about these tools.

So far, the IRS has taken three furlough days on May 24, June 14 and July 5, due to the budget situation including the sequester. Due to vigorous ongoing efforts by IRS employees to cut costs, the agency was able to cancel the scheduled July 22 furlough and is now able to postpone the furlough originally scheduled for Aug. 30.

WASHINGTON — The Internal Revenue Service today announced the availability of Statistics of Income—2011, Individual Income Tax Returns (Publication 1304), on irs.gov/taxstats. U.S. taxpayers filed 145.4 million individual income tax returns for tax year 2011. This was up 1.7 percent from 2010.

Also in tax year 2011, the adjusted gross income less deficit reported on those returns totaled $8.4 trillion, a 3.5-percent increase from the prior year.

The report is based on a sample drawn from the 145.4 million individual income tax returns filed for tax year 2011 and provides estimates of sources of income, adjusted gross income, exemptions, deductions, taxable income, income tax, modified income tax, tax credits, self-employment tax and tax payments.

Classifications include tax status, size of adjusted gross income, marital status, age and type of tax computation. A brief text reviews the requirements for filing tax returns, explains the changes in tax law and describes the sample used to produce the report. Publication 1304 is currently available for download at irs.gov/taxstats.

For more information about these data, please write to the Director, Statistics of Income Division, RAS:S, Internal Revenue Service, 1111 Constitution Avenue, K-Room 4122, Washington, DC 20224.