“Direct File provides a free, secure option for taxpayers with simple tax situations in 12 states to file their taxes directly with the IRS,” the Treasury Department said. “Direct File is easy to use, with no hidden junk fees, and works as well on a smartphone as it does on a laptop, tablet, or desktop computer. Direct File shows taxpayers the math so they can be sure that their return is accurate, and they are getting the refund they are entitled to.”
You can check whether you qualify to use the system at directfile.irs.gov. Based on the eligibility restrictions in the IRS program, the Treasury Department said it “estimates that one-third of all federal income tax returns filed could be prepared using Direct File.”
But there are many limits that would prevent taxpayers from using the system.
These states:
- Florida, Nevada, New Hampshire, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, and Wyoming
- Arizona
- California
- Massachusetts
- New York
- Washington
Strange way to list the items, but thank you.
These states account for 147 million people, about 43% of the country. Not too bad for a pilot program.
Florida, Nevada, New Hampshire, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Wyoming, Arizona, California, Massachusetts, New York, And Washington are the states you can use this in, since the site in the OP just gives you a link to the IRS website that lists the states.
Yeah, was bummed my state isn’t supported this year. Hopefully next year.
Hope while inaction or call your local politicians
Imagine going to the only grocery store available, there are no prices on any of the items, you shop there because you’re starving and have no choice.
You go to the checkout after each time you shop and there is a single cashier that says this:
“Fuck you. In about a couple months we’ll demand that you figure out how much you owe us. If you don’t figure it out then we’ll potentially place criminal charges against you. Thanks for shopping here.”
You realize that you have no fucking clue about how much the stuff you bought costs because it changes all the time and nothing is labelled and there’s no system for keeping track.
Welcome to the tax system in America.
It only works that way if you are willfully ignorant. As does everything else in the world.
You can easily calculate your taxes, and your necessary withholdings from that on your W4. There’s even a stupid simple grid to match your income to on one of the pages…
It’s like a grocery store where you know the prices, but they’re rounded to the nearest $0.01. but at checkout you have to make up the difference that wasn’t shown on the price tags. Which overall constitutes a minimal portion of your overall bill.
Would’ve liked to know this 2 days ago before I filed my taxes.
Well I’ll try it out next year.
I don’t think I’d be able to use this service even if it existed in my state, my self-employed taxes are apparently too complicated even though I currently only have one contract/employer. They need to simplify the tax code.
the US thinks if it fixes a problem that all fifty states have but only fix it in a handful of states that it has solved the problem one hundred percent
meanwhile the citizens go “We have to start somewhere this is a great thing!” and the leaders never get criticized sometimes the opposite people vote them back in
then that is all you hear until the issues reach critical because everything was quarter assed at best
this is how abortion, cannabis, all kinds of insurances, education, food assistance, etcetera already are played in the US
and at that point the citizens and the states are to blame for why things suck so hard
“well they should have voted better over there it is their faults that state sucks!”
which drives us further from solutions
This is great, but I still don’t understand why we even need to file anything.
To give rich people and corporations the chance to fudge the numbers and pay no tax of course!
Anybody here used this yet? How is it?
Can’t, I did a futures contract so I need to file Form 6781 (that’s what it was in 2022, so it might be similar this year)
yknow, it would be cool if there was like, income tax.
And only that. I think that would make me happy.
It does seem so complex having all these different taxes on everything rather then just taxing it all from incone
it really is. The primary reason they do it is because it makes tax more flexible, but realistically, income tax is realistically going to account for everything.
If you spend more, you’re making more, or spending less and spending more elsewhere, so it really doesn’t matter. Just having income tax on a federal and state level would be so much nicer. Because then you don’t have to think about your tax at all. If you work with an employer, they would basically write that shit for you. If you work for yourself, it’s easier than it currently is, most likely.
tangential rant but property tax is actually fucked and can eat dicks. I bought the land, fuck you, leave me alone.
I was so excited to do this to show interest, and then they brought up the ID. Me.
Never heard of it, so I go and look.
You expect me to fucking sign up for some weird 3rd party bullshit, when I would be happy to do that with an actual fucking government supplied way of letting you know I’m the actual person filing my taxes?
No, man. Fuck that, and fuck your stupid ass way of handling it.
I had such high hopes for it, but with the embarrassment of ID.me I just went back to FreetaxUSA.
This is exciting, now just to wait until it’s available in my state.
They have had a list of websites that will file at least federal taxes for free. Some have free state returns as well, however, your Adjusted Gross Income must be less than $79,000.
Never, ever trust the IRS list of “free” file sites. The IRS has a long history of posting fake “free” filing links. They were accepting bribes to keep Intuit’s fake free sites listed for over a decade. The IRS list should never, ever be trusted.
FreeTaxUSA.com is the only trustworthy free-filing site I am aware of. For more complex filing, they have some (low) fees, but they are very transparent about all of that. Plus, they are easier to use than Intuit/TurboTax.
FreeTaxUSA is one of the sites listed.
I’ve also used Tax Hawk for a few years and it’s been free.
I wasn’t aware that their site was promoting Intuit software.
