IRS Direct File will be cancelled if Republican tax bill becomes law
The bill still needs to pass the Senate to become law, but if the bill is enacted as currently written, the Direct File program is slated to be eliminated within 30 days of the law's passage.
The bill also requires the U.S. Treasury Department to create a task force to design a partnership between the IRS and private-sector tax service providers. The task force would need to identify ways to replace any 'free file programs and direct e-file tax return systems.' That includes the IRS Free File program, an existing public-private partnership.
IRS Direct File, which is separate from the Free File program, is a popular free option that offers guidance and support as you fill out your federal income tax return and file your taxes directly with the IRS. Most taxpayers have rated the Direct File program positively: About 90% of taxpayers said their experience was excellent or above average, according to a survey by the General Services Administration of about 11,000 Direct File users in 2024.
On top of that, interest in the program is clear: About 73% of taxpayers said they'd be somewhat or very interested in using Direct File, according to a Tax Policy Center report in March, based on a survey of taxpayers aged 18 to 64.
The Direct File program has been in Republican lawmakers' crosshairs for a while. In December, almost 30 Republican lawmakers sent a letter to President-elect Donald Trump, calling for him to end the Direct File program on his first day in office. Lawmakers in the U.S. House of Representatives introduced legislation last July to end the Direct File program.
Elon Musk, de facto head of the 'Department of Government Efficiency,' or DOGE — also isn't a fan of the program. In February, he posted on social media that the government tech office that developed the Direct File program had been 'deleted.'
Currently, the IRS's Direct File page is still up and running.
Direct File doubled its reach to 25 states for the 2025 tax season, up from 12 states in 2024, the program's pilot year.
An estimated 30 million taxpayers qualify for the Direct File program in 2025, the IRS says. More than 140,000 taxpayers filed their federal tax returns through the Direct File program in 2024.
The Direct File program also expanded to accept more types of tax situations for the 2025 tax season. While taxpayers who used the system in 2024 could claim a handful of tax credits, including the earned income tax credit and the child tax credit, that list expanded for this filing season to include the child and dependent care credit, among others.
However, taxpayers who want to claim other tax credits, such as the American Opportunity Tax Credit for higher education costs, or the tax credit for the costs of adopting a child, won't qualify for Direct File. And if you're hoping to deduct IRA contributions, Direct File doesn't support that. (See the full list of credits and deductions supported by Direct File on this IRS page.)
The Direct File program, now in its second year, allows taxpayers to file their federal tax returns electronically with the IRS. The no-cost tool guides taxpayers through every part of their federal income tax return. Taxpayers can file using a smartphone, computer or tablet.
One of the program's advantages is that, if you have questions as you're working on your return, you can get live support directly from the IRS via chat or phone. IRS representatives can answer basic tax questions and help with technical issues in English and Spanish.
The Direct File program has income limits, as well as limits on the types of income, deductions and credits you can enter on your tax return.
For the 2025 tax season:
—Your income must be less than $200,000 (less than $168,600 if you have more than one employer), and if you're married filing jointly, your spouse's income also must fall below these limits.
—If you're married filing jointly, your combined income must be less than $250,000.
—If you're married and file separately from your spouse, your income must be less than $125,000.
To be eligible for Direct File, your income can come from the following sources:
—W-2 wages
—Social Security income
—Unemployment compensation
—Interest income
—Retirement income (reported on a 1099-R — limited eligibility starts March 2025)
But if you're self-employed, or have business or rental income, you can't use Direct File. Same goes for IRA contributions or distributions: If you have either, you can't use Direct File.
You can use the IRS Direct File program only if you claim the standard deduction — the program isn't available to people who itemize.
But you can claim certain above-the-line deductions: student loan interest, educator expenses and health savings account contributions.
You can't use Direct File if you want to deduct your IRA contributions.
The Direct File program supports the following tax credits in 2025:
—Earned income tax credit
—Child tax credit
—Credit for other dependents
—Child and dependent care credit
—Premium tax credit
—Credit for the elderly or disabled
—Retirement savings contribution credit
However, if you want to claim education credits, credits for energy efficient home upgrades or the adoption expense credit, you can't use the Direct File program.
More taxpayers will have access to the IRS Direct File program in 2025. In 2024, the IRS kicked off the program with only 12 states; that number has expanded to 25 states for the 2025 tax season.
For some of the states that participate in the IRS Direct File program, your federal return information will be transferred automatically to the state tax website, but in some cases you'll have to re-enter your information. Visit this IRS Direct File page to get the details for your state.
Here is a list of the participating states:
Alaska, Arizona, California, Connecticut, Florida, Idaho, Illinois, Kansas, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Washington, Wisconsin and Wyoming
If you don't qualify for the IRS Direct File program, you may have other options to file your tax return for free.
In addition to Direct File, the IRS offers the Free File program, in which it partners with online tax software providers to provide free federal income tax return filing. Some providers also allow you to file a state income tax return.
For the 2025 tax season, your adjusted gross income must be $84,000 or less to qualify for the Free File program. That AGI applies to any filing status: married filing jointly, single, head of household, etc.
The IRS also offers the Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) program, which provides certified volunteers to prepare basic tax returns if you earn less than $67,000 a year, are disabled, or speak limited English. You can find a site near you by visiting this IRS page.
___
© 2025 Bankrate.com.
Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Boston Globe
2 hours ago
- Boston Globe
End the gerrymandering wars by enlarging the US House
Meanwhile, national Democratic Party leaders are Get The Gavel A weekly SCOTUS explainer newsletter by columnist Kimberly Atkins Stohr. Enter Email Sign Up There are no saints or villains in this saga. Republicans and Democrats are engaging in a bare-knuckled fight for power, and what each side condemns is Advertisement The cause of all this drama is not inherent Republican or Democratic perfidy. It is an institutional flaw: With only 435 seats, the US House is far too small — which means each congressional district is far too large. The average district now encompasses nearly 760,000 people. That is a constituency vastly greater than any member of Congress can effectively or fairly represent. And because congressional districts are so large, each one is a political prize well worth gerrymandering. When each district must corral so many people, a single line on the map has an outsize political impact. Under such circumstances, partisan cartography becomes irresistible — and bitter, recurring fights like the one in Texas are inevitable. Happily, there is a structural remedy that would dramatically curtail the constant court fights, political retaliation, and vicious maneuvering surrounding redistricting. Congress ought to expand the size of the House from the current 435 members to 1,500. No constitutional amendment would be needed — it would require only a simple statute to restore each House district to a more manageable size, and thereby make gerrymandering far less tempting. That would be a return to what the framers of the Constitution intended. The House of Representatives was conceived as Advertisement And there it froze. Congress didn't expand the House following the 1920 census, because of a political standoff. Many members resented the A House of 435 might have been workable during the Hoover administration. It makes no sense now. If the House were expanded to 1,500 members, the average congressional district would have about 225,000 people — still larger than its counterparts in many other modern democracies, but far more manageable than today's bloated mega-districts. Granted, that would require more chairs in the House chamber and perhaps smaller offices and staffs for each member. But the payoff would be enormous: Not only would the House be more representative, it would also be less susceptible to gerrymandering. Here's why: When each congressional district contains three-quarters of a million seats, a carefully crafted border can determine the balance of thousands of votes — enough to flip a seat. That makes each boundary line a powerful political weapon. But when districts are a third or a quarter of that size, no single line carries as much weight. Shifting a few neighborhoods or towns from one district to another would affect far fewer voters, making it harder for mapmakers to engineer outcomes with surgical precision. Smaller districts mean smaller levers — reducing the scope for mischief. Advertisement And the more districts there are, the less potent those engineering tactics become. Gerrymandering works best when the map has fewer, larger pieces — which makes it easier to 'pack' opposition voters into a handful of districts, and to 'crack' the rest among multiple other districts, thinning out their numbers to ensure that they lose everywhere else. But multiply the number of districts, and that strategy loses force. The cartographer's advantage fades as the map gets more granular. When each puzzle piece covers a smaller slice of territory, the lines become less predictable and harder to weaponize. Last but definitely not least, in a 1,500-member House, voters would be likelier to know their elected representative — and to be known in return. In districts limited to 225,000 constituents, there would be room for more local voices, more diversity of all kinds, more candidates who reflect the communities they serve. Much smaller districts means much less expensive campaigns — and lower barriers to entry for challengers. It also encourages lawmakers to stay grounded in the concerns of their neighbors rather than the noise of national partisanship. Congress blundered badly when it froze the House at 435 seats. The chaos emanating from Texas is only the latest consequence of that blunder. Advertisement It doesn't have to be this way. Enlarging the House to 1,500 members would end the gerrymandering wars. Better still, it would revive the ideal of a legislature that truly speaks for the people — restoring the people's House to its constitutional roots. Jeff Jacoby can be reached at
UPI
2 hours ago
- UPI
On This Day, Aug. 10: Founding Fathers propose 'E pluribus unum' as U.S. motto
1 of 6 | On August 10, 1776, a committee of Benjamin Franklin, John Adams and Thomas Jefferson suggested the United States adopt "E pluribus unum" -- "Out of many, one" -- as the motto for its Great Seal. File Photo by Chris Kleponis/UPI | License Photo Aug. 10 (UPI) -- On this date in history: In 1776, a committee of Benjamin Franklin, John Adams and Thomas Jefferson suggested the United States adopt "E pluribus unum" -- "Out of many, one" -- as the motto for its Great Seal. In 1920, Francisco "Pancho" Villa surrendered to Mexican authorities -- and drowned his sorrows in a bottle of cognac. In 1962, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and three other civil rights leaders were found guilty of disorderly conduct charges in Albany, Ga. Judge Adie Durden fined each $200 and sentenced them to 60 days in jail, but immediately suspended the sentences and placed King and his associates on probation. UPI File Photo In 1977, 24-year-old postal employee David Berkowitz was arrested and charged with being the "Son of Sam," the serial killer who terrorized New York City for more than a year, killing six young people and wounding seven others. Berkowitz was sentenced to life in prison. In 1980, Hurricane Allen made landfall along the Texas coast, killing 24 people there and in Louisiana. The storm killed a 269 people through the Caribbean, Mexico and United States. In 1991, China agreed in principle to sign the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty. In 1993, Ruth Bader Ginsburg was sworn in as the U.S. Supreme Court's 107th justice. In 1993, three ships collided with one another in Tampa Bay, Fla., spilling 336,000 gallons of fuel oil into the water. No one was killed. The incident marked the first time officials used a computerized trajectory model to track the location of an oil spill. In 1996, Republican presidential nominee Bob Dole selected former congressman, Cabinet secretary and NFL quarterback Jack Kemp as his running mate. File Photo by Ezio Petersen/UPI In 2003, more than 80 inmates tunneled their way out of Brazil's Joao Pessoa prison, one of the nation's top security facilities. In 2017, President Donald Trump said opioid addiction "is a serious problem the likes of which we have never had" and declared a national emergency over the crisis. In 2021, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced his resignation in the wake of a damning attorney general's report that found he'd sexually harassed nearly a dozen women in recent years. In 2023, a non-profit rescue team recovered 17 bodies while 33 remained missing after a boat carrying Rohingya Muslims capsized near Myanmar while sailing to Malaysia.
Yahoo
2 hours ago
- Yahoo
European allies call for more pressure on Russia ahead of Trump-Putin talks
European allies renewed calls to pressure Russia overnight as they rallied behind Ukraine in insisting that any deal to end the war include Kyiv ahead of peace talks in Alaska next Friday between US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin. The White House later confirmed that Trump would be open to a trilateral summit with Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky, who has rejected the US idea of ceding Ukrainian land to secure peace. European leaders urged more "pressure" on Russia overnight Saturday, after the announcement of a Trump-Putin summit to end the war in Ukraine raised concern that an agreement would require Kyiv to cede swathes of territory. Presidents Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump will meet in the US state of Alaska this Friday to try to resolve the three-year conflict, despite warnings from Ukraine and Europe that Kyiv must be part of negotiations. Announcing the summit last week, Trump said that "there'll be some swapping of territories to the betterment of both" sides, without elaborating. But President Volodymyr Zelensky warned Saturday that Ukraine won't surrender land to Russia to buy peace. "Ukrainians will not give their land to the occupier," he said on social media. "Any decisions against us, any decisions without Ukraine, are also decisions against peace," he added. Zelensky urged Ukraine's allies to take "clear steps" towards achieving a sustainable peace during a call with Britain's Prime Minister Keir Starmer. European leaders issued a joint statement overnight Saturday to Sunday saying that "only an approach that combines active diplomacy, support to Ukraine and pressure on the Russian Federation to end their illegal war can succeed". They welcomed Trump's efforts, saying they were ready to help diplomatically -- by maintaining support to Ukraine, as well as by upholding and imposing restrictive measures against Russia. Read morePutin says 'conditions' for talks not met as Zelensky pushes for meeting with Russia "The current line of contact should be the starting point of negotiations", said the statement, signed by leaders from France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Britain, Finland and EU Commission chief Ursula Von Der Leyen, without giving more details. They also said a resolution "must protect Ukraine's and Europe's vital security interests", including "the need for robust and credible security guarantees that enable Ukraine to effectively defend its sovereignty and territorial integrity". "The path to peace in Ukraine cannot be decided without Ukraine," they said. National security advisors from Kyiv's allies -- including the United States, EU nations and the UK -- gathered in Britain Saturday to align their views ahead of the Putin-Trump summit. French President Emmanuel Macron, following phone calls with Zelensky, Starmer and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, said "the future of Ukraine cannot be decided without Ukrainians" and that Europe also had to be involved in the negotiations. In his evening address Saturday, Zelensky stressed: "There must be an honest end to this war, and it is up to Russia to end the war it started." A 'dignified peace' Three rounds of talks between Russia and Ukraine this year have failed to bear fruit. Tens of thousands of people have been killed since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, with millions forced to flee their homes. Putin, a former KGB officer in power in Russia for over 25 years, has ruled out holding talks with Zelensky at this stage. Ukraine's leader has been pushing for a three-way summit and argues that meeting Putin is the only way to make progress towards peace. The summit in Alaska, the far-north territory which Russia sold to the United States in 1867, would be the first between sitting US and Russian presidents since Joe Biden met Putin in Geneva in June 2021. Nine months later, Moscow sent troops into Ukraine. Zelensky said of the location that it was "very far away from this war, which is raging on our land, against our people". The Kremlin said the choice was "logical" because the state close to the Arctic is on the border between the two countries, and this is where their "economic interests intersect". Moscow has also invited Trump to pay a reciprocal visit to Russia later. Read more'Just a trickle': Residents in Russian-occupied Ukraine face severe water shortage Trump and Putin last sat together in 2019 at a G20 summit meeting in Japan during Trump's first term. They have spoken by telephone several times since January, but Trump has failed to broker peace in Ukraine as he promised he could. Fighting goes on Russia and Ukraine continued pouring dozens of drones onto each other's positions in an exchange of attacks in the early hours of Saturday. A bus carrying civilians was hit in Ukraine's frontline city of Kherson, killing two people and wounding 16. The Russian army claimed to have taken Yablonovka, another village in the Donetsk region, the site of the most intense fighting in the east and one of the five regions Putin says is part of Russia. In 2022, the Kremlin announced the annexation of four Ukrainian regions -- Donetsk, Lugansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson -- despite not having full control over them. As a prerequisite to any peace settlement, Moscow demanded Kyiv pull its forces out of the regions and commit to being a neutral state, shun Western military support and be excluded from joining NATO. Kyiv said it would never recognise Russian control over its sovereign territory, though it acknowledged that getting land captured by Russia back would have to come through diplomacy, not on the battlefield. (FRANCE 24 with AFP)
