- 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.
Dear United States, nice to see you finally catching on to what we’ve been doing since 1999.
Love,
Sweden
Norway here, I’ve been working since 1995 and I can’t ever recall having to “do my taxes”.
Sweden: has sane taxation system US: how are we supposed to get middlemen in there to profit off the populace? No no, this won’t work.
Just out of interest I checked the UK’s system called PAYE, it’s was fully introduced in 1944. The only people that have to deal with bullshit tax returns are people that are probably going to be making enough money to be able to afford someone to sort it out for them anyway.