The Internal Revenue Service is making its Direct File program a permanent option for filing federal tax returns in the 2025 tax season.
Details for expanding the program, after this year’s pilot, will be announced later, the IRS said recently.
During the trial,140,803 taxpayers in 12 states filed their taxes using Direct File.
“The clear message is that many taxpayers across the nation want the IRS to provide more than one no-cost option for filing electronically,” IRS Commissioner Danny Werfel said in a prepared statement.
The IRS will work with all states that wish to participate and will not limit the number of states. It expects several states will join, but identified no additional ones. Its goal is to gradually expand Direct File to support most common tax situations, with a particular focus on those situations that impact working families.
Bob Scott has provided information to the tax and accounting community since 1991, first as technology editor of Accounting Today, and from 1997 through 2009 as editor of its sister publication, Accounting Technology. He is known throughout the industry for his depth of knowledge and for his high journalistic standards. Scott has made frequent appearances as a speaker, moderator and panelist and events serving tax and accounting professionals. He has a strong background in computer journalism as an editor with two former trade publications, Computer+Software News and MIS Week and spent several years with weekly and daily newspapers in Morris County New Jersey prior to that. A graduate of Indiana University with a degree in journalism, Bob is a native of Madison, Ind