WASHINGTON, D.C.—After a successful pilot program used during the 2023 tax filing season was reported to have saved Americans in 12 states $5.6 million in fees, U.S. Senator Angus King is encouraging the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to offer its new free filing services to more taxpayers. In a bicameral letter to Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and IRS Commissioner Daniel Werfel, King and his colleagues are encouraging the IRS, in consultation with the Department of Treasury, to expand the free filing services to taxpayers in more states.

Thus far, the pilot has only been rolled out to Arizona, California, Florida, Massachusetts, Nevada, New Hampshire, New York, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Washington and Wyoming. With the successful trial under its belt, the Members of Congress are encouraging the IRS to expand its availability to all Americans. They are also encouraging the IRS to expand the program to support additional sources of income, offer more flexible identification verification procedures, and accommodate additional refundable tax credits—like the Earned Income Tax Credit and the Child Tax Credit—for low and middle income Americans.

“With the 2024 tax filing season at its end, we write to commend you on the historic and resoundingly successful launch of Direct File, the first free, public, electronic federal tax filing tool in U.S. history.  Taxpayers want and deserve a free and easy filing option, and thanks to this year’s pilot, taxpayers used Direct File to claim over $90 million in tax refunds and save $5.6 million in estimated filing fees, with 90 percent of surveyed users rating their experience positively and 86 percent saying their experience with the tool increased their trust in the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).[1]  We applaud your leadership and Direct File’s incredible success this year, and we call on you to make Direct File a permanent program, expanding it and improving it further next year and in the years to come,” the Members wrote.

They continued, “The IRS’s delivery of this new, wildly successful filing tool less than 18 months after receiving significant new funds from the Inflation Reduction Act[14] demonstrates the huge returns from investing in the IRS and in government technology in general.  As the Atlantic wrote: “That Direct File exists at all is shocking.  That it’s pretty good is borderline miraculous…  It’s a glimpse of a world where government tech benefits millions of Americans.”[15]

“It is beyond doubt that the Direct File pilot – launched as a phased, limited-scope rollout in line with tech industry best practices – was a success.  We now call on you to make Direct File a permanent program and to expand its functionality and scope, eventually making it available to most taxpayers, further increasing its impact,” the Members concluded. “Specifically, we hope Direct File will support additional sources of income, integrate with more states, offer more flexible identity verification procedures, and accommodate additional tax benefits, with a focus on refundable credits available to low- and middle-income families.”

Senator King has worked to make the burdensome annual tax filing process easier for Maine people. He was an original cosponsor of the Tax Filing Simplification Act of 2022 that directed the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to develop a free, easy to use, online tax filing software, and eliminate unnecessary red tape for all taxpayers. The successful pilot program served 140,803 taxpayers with simple tax returns in 12 pilot states. Taxpayers saved an estimated $5.6 million in filing fees and were quite pleased with the service that they received. Among surveyed users, 90 percent ranked their Direct File experience as “Excellent” or “Above Average” and 86 percent said that their experience with Direct File increased their trust in the IRS.

Prior to the introduction of this filing tool, Americans spent on average 13 hours and $240 to file their taxes, with only 3% of taxpayers accessing free filing services.

The full text of the letter can be found here and below.

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Dear Secretary Yellen and Commissioner Werfel,

With the 2024 tax filing season at its end, we write to commend you on the historic and resoundingly successful launch of Direct File, the first free, public, electronic federal tax filing tool in U.S. history.  Taxpayers want and deserve a free and easy filing option, and thanks to this year’s pilot, taxpayers used Direct File to claim over $90 million in tax refunds and save $5.6 million in estimated filing fees, with 90 percent of surveyed users rating their experience positively and 86 percent saying their experience with the tool increased their trust in the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).[1]  We applaud your leadership and Direct File’s incredible success this year, and we call on you to make Direct File a permanent program, expanding it and improving it further next year and in the years to come.

In May 2023, the IRS and Treasury Department announced plans to pilot a Direct File tool in 2024, noting that the pilot would allow “the IRS to test functionality for some taxpayers, evaluate success, and use lessons learned to inform the growth of the tool.”[2]  At the time, many of us wrote to you in support of Direct File.[3]

The Direct File pilot has been a clear and resounding success.  Over 140,000 taxpayers used the tool across the 12 pilot states, with a survey of 11,000 users finding that 90 percent ranked their experience with Direct File as “Excellent” or “Above Average,” and 90 percent of survey respondents who used customer service similarly found the experience “Excellent” or “Above Average.”[4]  Another survey found that 82 percent of Direct File users would recommend it, and 74 percent prefer it to the previous filing method they used.[5]

Individual users also raved about the time and money they saved and the quality of the service they received:

1. “I don’t want to call myself a dummy, but this is taxes for dummies right here,” said the first Direct File user, an HR specialist in Texas who saved nearly $400 in tax prep fees.[6]  “The way that it was laid out was just so darn easy to understand and I just see it being helpful for so many millions of people.”[7]
2. “It was the fastest I’ve ever done my taxes,” said one taxpayer in California.[8]  “I didn’t have to worry about someone upselling me.”[9]
3. “There were no random ads, like ‘What am I clicking on?’” said another taxpayer in Texas, who saved the $80 she typically sends to file her taxes.[10]
4. “It was the most convenient way I’ve ever filed my taxes,” said a taxpayer in Washington State.[11]  “I got to be honest, it surprised me how simple it was.”[12]
5. “It was a walk in the park,” said another Californian, who “basically did my taxes on my lunch break” and saved $100 that he would have otherwise spent to file his taxes.[13]

The IRS’s delivery of this new, wildly successful filing tool less than 18 months after receiving significant new funds from the Inflation Reduction Act[14] demonstrates the huge returns from investing in the IRS and in government technology in general.  As the Atlantic wrote: “That Direct File exists at all is shocking.  That it’s pretty good is borderline miraculous…  It’s a glimpse of a world where government tech benefits millions of Americans.”[15]

Direct File’s success is even more notable given the failures of the U.S. tax filing system to date. The average American spends $150 and nine hours to file their taxes each year.^[16]  Free File – the IRS’s partnership with private tax preparation companies to offer free online filing – has failed, reaching only 2% of taxpayers while 70% qualify.^[17]  Meanwhile, Intuit (the owner of TurboTax) and H&R Block have misled taxpayers into paying for tax preparation services they are supposed to receive for free, according to the Federal Trade Commission.[18]  A recent analysis also found paid preparers targeting low-income Black and Brown communities, often making costly errors and marketing predatory payday lending products.[19]  This broken filing system blocks millions of families from accessing critical tax benefits enacted by Congress like the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) and Child Tax Credit (CTC). [20]

It is beyond doubt that the Direct File pilot – launched as a phased, limited-scope rollout in line with tech industry best practices – was a success.  We now call on you to make Direct File a permanent program and to expand its functionality and scope, eventually making it available to most taxpayers, further increasing its impact.

Specifically, we hope Direct File will support additional sources of income, integrate with more states, offer more flexible identity verification procedures, and accommodate additional tax benefits, with a focus on refundable credits available to low- and middle-income families.  Direct File should also continue streamlining the filing process by using taxpayer data that the IRS already has.  As Secretary Yellen recently said: “If [taxpayers] like [Direct File], it would be very natural to continue to build on it…  One day we hope, for example, information that taxpayers receive W-2s and other things could be used to pre-populate the program, making it even more usable and friendly.”[21]  The pilot has already shown the value of this approach, with an April 8^th update to Direct File that allowed users to import previous-year adjusted gross income data required to validate their current year returns.[22]

Such expansions will turbocharge Direct File’s usefulness.  In fact, a recent report by the Economic Security Project finds that a fully-fledged Direct File – including the functionality referenced by Secretary Yellen – could save taxpayers $11 billion per year, while also delivering up to $12 billion a year in unclaimed benefits, generating over $100 of value for taxpayers for every dollar spent.[23] 

Again, we congratulate you on the success of the Direct File pilot and stand ready to work with you on making the program permanent and expanding it.  We believe that the IRS can offer free and easy tax filing to every American taxpayer who wants it — and that, with Direct File, it will.  We also applaud your broader efforts to invest funding that we passed in the Inflation Reduction Act to improve taxpayer services and to ensure the wealthy and large corporations pay what they owe, and we will continue to fight to protect the funding that makes this progress possible.

Sincerely,

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