In theory it would be quicker because you would be submitting your filing right away online instead of waiting for it to be submitted by mail. It still takes around 5-10 days to receive your tax return by direct deposit regardless of whether or not you submit it online.
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Last week, I e-filed both of my children's taxes and they received their refunds in 7 days. They opted for an electronic deposit into their bank accounts. If you request a check, it will take a little longer. The closer you get to April 15, the longer you will wait for your refund due to the volume of returns the IRS will be processing.
Source(s):
Personal Experience

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My understanding is you always go into a lottery based on when your return is received. But because nobody has to parse the electronic form you get put straight into the lottery. In the case of the written, you have to wait until it can be typed in to the system. So instead of showing up that it was received on the day it was actually physically received it shows up on the day it was parsed. In addition, the later you wait the more backed up the group that has to parse and type in gets. So if you sent yours in on January 1 there would probably be no difference between e-filing and non e-filing. But in March they are already behind in parsing so it takes longer for the written version.
Source(s):
Use to know somebody who did this stuff. Although it was a while ago so it maybe being done differently. It's possible that some of the documents are scanned and automatically parsed now. I would expect this would speed it up somewhat.

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