NASHVILLE (AP) - The Internal Revenue Service has opened the 2012 electronic tax return filing season by touting the value of e-filing.

In Tennessee, about 83 percent of all tax returns received by the IRS in 2011 were e-filed.

Spokesmen said e-filing is fast, easy, accurate, safe and secure. Through IRS Free File, taxpayers don't have to pay anything to prepare and e-file their returns.

Last year more than 880,000 of Tennessee returns that were e-filed were self-prepared by taxpayers using their own computers.