You will need to follow this process in order to submit an electronic return:

If you choose to submit an electronic return one month and a paper return the next month this is acceptable.

Through Feb. 11 this year, taxpayers filed 7,387,000 electronic returns, roughly half of the expected total for the season.

Reduce the administrative burden on businesses through the use of electronic returns.

More than 25,000 fraudulent electronic returns were detected in the first 10 months of 1993, more than double the number a year earlier.

Usually tax preparers charge $25 or more, on top of their normal fees, for electronic returns.

Still, for people who prepare their own returns and have to file more than one, the electronic return may make life easier.

And electronic returns go through rigorous error checks before they can be transmitted, reducing their error rate to less than 2 percent.

The benefits are obvious; last year's error rate on electronic returns was 2.8 percent, compared with 18 percent for paper ones.

When an electronic return is prepared, an account is automatically set up for the taxpayer at a bank, credit union or other financial institution.