As Tax Day approaches in the U.S., millions of Americans turn online for financial information and advice on how to prepare their own tax returns. Historically, February is the peak month for consumers' visits to tax websites, and in February 2012 about one in four Americans who were active online visited these sites, representing more than 53 million Americans who viewed over 1.4 billion pages on tax-related websites.

Not surprisingly, IRS.gov is the most visited tax-related website, with over 28 million unique U.S. visitors during February 2012. As Americans tried to get a head start in paying taxes, other popular online destinations included Turbo Tax (25.4 million), H&R Block (19.5 million), and TaxACT (6.2 million). There is significant overlap between visitors to these sites: almost half of visitors to IRS.gov went on visit TurboTax within the same month, and 39 percent visited H&R Block’s website as well.

Compared to prior years, more Americans visited tax sites from home and work computers in February 2012, with visits to H&R Block up 58 percent compared to 2011, and Completetax.com more than doubling its audience over the last two years. This growth is led by women, who make up the majority of visitors to this select group of tax-related sites, and those with college degrees who are about 20 percent more likely to visit these sites.