This tax season, the Oregon Department of Revenue will offer a new way for Oregon residents to file their returns electronically using a special kiosk located at its regional offices in Bend, Eugene and Medford.

This is the first year the department will offer this service, said Robin Maxey, public information officer for the Oregon Department of Revenue, and the hope is that the kiosks will help tax filers get their returns more quickly and increase the overall rate of electronic filing.

“We have regular customers who bring their paper forms into our field offices every year and hand them over. We thought, wouldn’t it be nice if we could say, ‘Hey, you want to get your refund a little bit sooner? Walk right over there, use this kiosk … and you can get your refund a little faster,’” Maxey said.

Even though around 94% of all tax returns are filed electronically in Oregon, Maxey said the department is still looking to increase that number for several reasons. Not only do taxpayers get their returns faster on average, it also results in fewer mistakes and makes forms easier to process, Maxey said.

Another motivation, Maxey said, is to expand access to electronic filing for those who have connectivity issues and encourage senior filers who aren’t as comfortable with computers to embrace electronic filing.

“I feel like this is a ‘stick your toe in the water’ kind of situation. If you’re more comfortable with doing it on paper but you want to see what it would be like to do it electronically, this is an opportunity to take those paper forms, go to the Bend office, sit down at the computer kiosk and pull up those fillable forms,” Maxey said. “It might turn out that you discover this is a better option than paper and pencil.”

A big reason the Oregon Department of Revenue is encouraging residents even more to file their taxes electronically this year is because of the kicker, a policy in Oregon that returns to taxpayers revenue collected by the state in excess of 102% of the biennial budget estimate. This year, anyone who filed a 2022 return will receive a record 44.28% back from their Oregon State income taxes that year.

The Bend office — where residents can access the kiosk without making an appointment — is located at 951 SW Simpson Ave, Suite 100. The office is open from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday, and is closed for lunch from 12:30-1:30 p.m. While employees cannot assist with filing the returns, they are able to answer basic questions.