The IRS has closed its Direct File service that allowed taxpayers to file their taxes for free.
“Direct File is now closed,” the IRS said in an undated message on its Direct File website that was updated on Nov. 6, according to an Epoch Times review of page metadata.
The IRS page also included a message stating that more information would be provided later, along with a link providing guidance on other ways to file taxes.
Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), the ranking member on the Senate Finance Committee, released a statement on Nov. 6 criticizing the IRS’s decision. He said the program should remain in effect for the 2026 filing season, which is slated to start in January 2026.
“I wrote the bill that created Direct File because the existing free options were insufficient and the big tax prep companies had been caught red-handed using deceptive practices to scam taxpayers into overpaying,” Wyden said.
Several other Democratic lawmakers were also critical of the decision to end the Direct File program, including Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.) and Rep. Don Beyer (D-Va.), who both posted about it on X last week.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent recently signaled during a press conference that the Direct File program would be terminated.
“We have better alternatives,” Bessent, who is also the acting IRS commissioner, told reporters at the White House on Nov. 5. “It wasn’t used very much, and we think that the private sector can do a better job.”
The Direct File pilot program was started in tax year 2023, and as of April 20, 2025, 296,531 returns had been filed by users through the program and accepted by the tax agency, according to a recent Treasury Department report.
“Direct File had low overall participation and relatively high costs and burdens on the federal government, compared to other free filing options,” the report stated.
It noted that less than 0.5 percent of all 146 million tax returns that were filed for tax year 2024 were submitted through the Direct File program, which cost the federal government about $41 million for that year.
The nonprofit Alliance for IRS Accountability praised the Trump administration’s decision to terminate the Direct File program, saying it was a “costly and ineffective power grab” that would “consolidate power in the hands of unelected IRS bureaucrats.”
Earlier this year, David Williams, the president of the Taxpayers Protection Alliance, which describes itself as a nonpartisan organization that disseminates research and analysis on the government’s effects on the economy, said Direct File was “problematic” from the start, citing the program’s cost and noting that many people who started the process never finished.
“From hidden costs to taxpayer confusion, the program is riddled with issues,” Williams said.
Direct File was rolled out as a pilot program in 2024 for the 2023 tax year after the IRS was tasked with looking into how to create a filing system under the Inflation Reduction Act that was signed into law by President Joe Biden in 2022.
The Democratic administration spent tens of millions of dollars developing the program, and the agency under Biden announced in May 2024 that the program would be made permanent.
The program had been in limbo since the start of the Trump administration as Elon Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency recommended cuts throughout the federal government.
Musk wrote in February on X that he had “deleted” 18F, a General Services Administration agency that worked on technology projects such as Direct File. Musk left the Trump administration in late May.
The Epoch Times contacted the Treasury Department for comment on Sunday but did not hear back by publication time.
By Epoch Times – https://www.theepochtimes.com
