IRS Direct File
github.com
github.com
They don’t spam my email and phone unlike Intuit (even after I deleted my account)
The name might seem a little sketchy, but it’s a legit service. I don’t know about “free” - I’ve always ended up paying to file at least one of state or federal, I don’t recall, but not pricy.
(Edit - looking closer, I’ve been using them since 2007. Wow, time flies. Great service, no complaints.)
I believe they may even pay these companies to offer the service.
Free Tax USA doesn't have an income limit, and may be the only one, so I've used them for at least 5 years. They charge $10 for state filing, so I use CalFile instead.
My tax situation is pretty simple and they've filled my needs. The only issue I've had is with exempting Treasury bills from state tax but I don't file state with them anyway so maybe I missed something.
> The information given may be used to improve and develop and train our artificial intelligence and other machine learning models.
> When using digital media (PDF, photo, etc.) imports and/or uploads on FreeTaxUSA.com, any information submitted by the customer through this service may be processed using automated (AI) and/or manual (human) methods. The information given may be used to improve and develop and train our artificial intelligence and other machine learning models. We implement robust safeguards in our use of AI to maintain security and compliance, ensuring sensitive information is protected and handled responsibly. Any sensitive information is anonymized or excluded from use. We do not share customer data or trained AI models with any third party. When leveraging cloud infrastructure, all data is securely managed and maintained under TaxHawk’s exclusive control.
In other words, if you don't use features like PDF, photo upload, there's no AI use.
I prep about a dozen returns every year with it. Id say it's the easiest and most straight forward e-file I've ever used. A simple return should take maybe 10 minutes. They don't upsell very hard either which is super nice.
They also keep your previous years return for free which greatly speeds up filing. Most services charge for that.
Anything to unseat Intuit. That said, a direct file option would be best, but I don't trust myself to fill the forms correctly.
> Take a look at [Form 1040][1]. Line 12c asks the taxpayer to add lines 12a and 12b. This is a common pattern on tax forms. https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/f1040.pdf
> There is a relationship betwen lines 12a, 12b, and 12c. In order to know what should be entered in 12c, we need to first know the values of 12a and 12b.
> This pattern might remind you of a spreadsheet. If we were to transcribe Form 1040 into Excel, we might imagine that line 12c would be a formula like =SUM(Line12A,Line12B). Excel spreadsheets are _declarative_, which is to say we define the relationships between cells using formulas, but we leave it up to Excel to determine how to solve the spreadsheet.
This is their data-relational langage.
https://github.com/IRS-Public/direct-file/blob/main/direct-f...
I found a link to that organization here[0] at least, so this one at seems to be official.
[0] https://www.irs.gov/businesses/corporations/ides-data-transm...
https://www.404media.co/directfile-open-source-irs-tax-filin...
Nice initiative to see this code on github.
(a) Termination of Direct File.—As soon as practicable, and not later than 30 days after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary of the Treasury shall ensure that the Internal Revenue Service Direct File program has been terminated.
> The program had been in limbo since the start of the Trump administration as Elon Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency have slashed their way through the federal government. Musk posted in February on his social media site, X, that he had “deleted” 18F, a government agency that worked on technology projects such as Direct File.
> There was some hope that Musk, with his DOGE team of computer programmers, could take over Direct File and improve it. But the two people familiar with the decision to end Direct File said its future became clear when the IRS staff assigned to the program were told in mid-March to stop working on its development for the 2026 tax filing season.
https://apnews.com/article/irs-direct-file-tax-returns-free-...
E-file: which is essentially just an api end point for accepting digitized tax returns and is what all the major (paid) tax software uses.
Direct file: a web based version of the 1040 irs forms which will, when filled out, submit the forms electronically.
=== Edit: there are actually three, the third is Free Fillable Forms, which is what I'm actually talking about here ===
Note that when I say "version of the forms" I mean that quite literally. The interface is as close as html can come to looking like a printed 1040 form and about 1 tiny step up from filling out a pdf version.
The forms will occasionally do math for you: some of the fields are marked as the sum of a set of fields and those will automatically do the addition for you, but that's the limit of the automation.
For example, to compute your actual owed taxes you need a percentage to multiply by your taxable income, and that number is found by looking through a roughly 10 page table that maps income ranges in brackets of $50 to a specific number (so 0-50 is one number, 50-100 is another, and so on up to several hundred thousand).
To get this number for the form you, of course, must open the help documentation in a separate tab and scan through it looking for your bracket.
My understanding as to why it works this way is that the irs is basically doing as much as they're legally allowed to. The irs is, as far as i know, forbidden by law, from developing any kind of software that helps you file taxes (or more accurately, competes with turbotax) and this web-form doesn't quite count as breaking that law.
I'll note in passing, that as a general rule "both sides" tend to take turbotax money to hobble the irs, this specific direct file was championed and funded by democrats, opposed by republicans and the republican president trump is trying to delete it.
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Dear Free File Fillable Forms Taxpayer:
Your 2023 federal tax return has been rejected due to the error(s) listed below.
Your Submission ID is: 44011101892
Get help resolving your errors by using the Error Search Tool at https://www.irs.gov/filing/individuals/free-file-fillable-fo... You must follow the search instructions to find solutions
When you have your solution(s), sign in to your Free File Fillable Forms account at https://www.freefilefillableforms.com Fix your error(s) and resubmit your return. Be sure to re-enter the direct debit date (if used) and the e-file date in the Step 2 tab of Free File Fillable Forms.
If you are unable to resolve the error(s), you can mail your tax return and your payment by April 18, 2023 to avoid penalties and interest. Here is your error(s):
Issue : Business Rule X0000-005 - The XML data has failed schema validation. cvc-pattern-valid. Value `` is not facet-valid with respect to pattern `[0-9]{9}` for type `EINType`.
The following information may help you determine the form at issue: Field/Xpath: /efile:Return[1]/efile:ReturnData[1]/efile:IRSW2[2]/efile:EmployerEIN[1]
Issue : Business Rule IND-031-04 - `PrimaryPriorYearPIN` or `PrimaryPriorYearAGIAmt` in the Return Header must match the e-File database. If you are unable to provide a valid `PrimaryPriorYearPIN` or `PrimaryPriorYearAGIAmt`, then you may instead provide an Identity Protection PIN (IP PIN) to electronically file your return. An IP PIN may not be used if you are filing Form 9465 standalone. If you wish to get an IP PIN and you don`t already have an account on IRS.gov, then you must register to validate your identity. Please visit www.irs.gov/getanippin for further information and resubmit your return.
The following information may help you determine the form at issue:
Field/Xpath: /efile:Return/efile:ReturnHeader/efile:Filer/efile:PrimarySSN
Honestly I don't even really mind the FFF, however byzantine, the forms are the native interface to declaring taxes. It just really bothers me that the IRS, the government organization that has one job, to receive taxes, has a primary interface that routes me through a company I am trying to avoid.
It is a large reason I am still filing paper forms in this internet connected age. Until the IRS gets it's online act togther it is still the most ergonomic option.
What more needs to be done?
Granted, the ranks of the self-employed are a small fraction of all taxpayers, and there's no reason the latter should be forced to do things as if they were part of the former.
- Employers don't tell the federal government about state tax information and when they do, the government doesn't store that information
- W2s aren't due to the SSA at the opening of tax filing season and penalties aren't commonly enforced for submitting w2s on time.
https://github.com/IRS-Public/direct-file/blob/main/direct-f...
Very simple. No more guessing game.
This overly complex system we have in the USA is built intentionally to benefit multi-billion dollar tax preparation industry.
You can deduct the cost of thefts. You can deduct alimony. You can deduct student loan interest. You can deduct business use of your car. Donations to charity. Bad loans you gave out. Gambling loses.
Life is not simple. You should not perceive this as an "interview." The tax industry is huge because our businesses are monopoly sized. The majority of money that is liable for tax purposes is held and moved by businesses. Your income taxes are not what this industry runs on.
More or less as you describe, for your IRS returns, of arbitrary complexity and value.
The IRS actually already has the forms. It needs the scripting. It needs a digital submission system. That should be it and should be most of what average taxpayers actually need.
You can’t use Direct File if:
If your wages are more than $200,000 ($168,600 if you had more than one employer).
You file as Married Filing Jointly, and your spouse’s wages are more than $200,000 ($168,600 if your spouse had more than one employer).
You file as Married Filing Jointly, and you and your spouse's wages are more than $250,000.
You file as Married Filing Separately, and your wages are more than $125,000.
$168.6k is suspiciously the same as the (2024) social security cap, so they probably didn't handle that edge case.
$250k is the start of NIIT, so they probably didn't handle that case either.
My guess: since the tax code is so complicated, they probably wanted to support the simplest and most common filing cases in the first release. Handling all the edge cases would delay the launch, and prevent them from collecting feedback. If the feedback and demand was positive for v1, they could expand the surface area in the future.
Unfortunately, it didn't last long enough
[0] https://www.census.gov/data/tables/2024/demo/income-poverty/...