Canadians are increasingly embracing electronic tax returns rather than filing on paper, the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) said Friday.

New figures show that more than 55% of returns filed this tax year have been by Netfile (where taxpayers file their returns themselves through the web) or Efile (where professional tax preparers use the web to file client returns).

Just over nine million returns were Efiled — a jump of 9.1% from last year. More than 4.1 million returns were Netfiled. That’s up 4.9% from last year, the tax department said.

About 10 million returns have been filed on paper, down 3.2% from the 10.38 million paper returns received last year.

Telefile — which allows people with simple returns to file over the phone — continued to drop in popularity. Only 478,000 returns were telefiled this year, down 5.5% from last year.

The average refund so far is $1,440 — up almost $200 from last year. Retroactive tax cuts contained in last year’s fall economic update explain the increase.

The CRA is expecting about 25 million returns to be filed this year. As of May 28, almost 23.7 million returns had been processed.

Self-employed individuals have until midnight on Monday, June 16, to file their returns.