- Some taxpayers will soon qualify for Direct File, a free tax-filing option from the IRS.
- The pilot will begin as an invitation-only service before rolling out to certain taxpayers in 12 states by mid-March.
- In 2023, individual U.S. taxpayers spent an average of $150 to prepare and file returns, according to the IRS.
Eligible states will include Arizona, California, Florida, Massachusetts, Nevada, New Hampshire, New York, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Washington and Wyoming.
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Who qualifies for IRS Direct File
Residents of eligible states with a simple, straightforward return can qualify. The pilot will start with limited types of income, credits and deductions, IRS officials said.
While only certain taxpayers can use Direct File, the bilingual software includes built-in live chat support with IRS assistors.
The pilot will only accept Form W-2 wages, Social Security retirement income, unemployment earnings and interest of $1,500 or less. This means the pilot won’t include anyone with gig economy work or business income.
You must claim the standard deduction to use the Direct File pilot and the system only accepts a few credits — the earned income tax credit, child tax credit and credit for other dependents. The software also accepts tax breaks for student loan interest and educator expenses.
FreeTaxUSA.com is free for most types of filings and very inexpensive for complex filings. If you don’t qualify for the new IRS program, the next best thing is definitely going to be FreeTaxUSA.
Agreed, I use them and paid $15 for state filing only. There are other services if you want extra but they’ve been my go to for a couple years now
Used them for the first time this year and it was a great experience. Still can’t figure out what add-on made it not work in my desktop Firefox but that’s minor.