TAX FILING CALENDAR

Free File program now open; Direct File available starting Jan. 27 for taxpayers in 25 states

WASHINGTON — The Internal Revenue Service today announced that the nation’s 2025 tax season will start on Monday, Jan. 27, 2025, and will feature expanded and enhanced tools to help taxpayers as a result of the agency’s historic modernization efforts.

The IRS expects more than 140 million individual tax returns for tax year 2024 to be filed ahead of the Tuesday, April 15 federal deadline. More than half of all tax returns are expected to be filed this year with the help of a tax professional, and the IRS urges people to use a trusted tax pro to avoid potential scams and schemes.

The 2025 tax filing season will reflect continued IRS progress to modernize and add new tools and features to help taxpayers. Since last tax season, the improvements include more access to tax account information from text and voice virtual assistants, expanded features on the IRS Individual Online Account, more access to dozens of tax forms through cell phones and tablets and expanded alerts for scams and schemes that threaten taxpayers.

The IRS has also expanded features and availability of last year’s Direct File program. This year, Direct File will be available starting Jan. 27 to taxpayers in 25 states. In addition, the IRS Free File program opens today. Available only on IRS.gov, IRS Free File Guided Tax Software provides millions of taxpayers nationwide access to free software tools offered by trusted IRS Free File partners.

The IRS is also working to continue the success of the 2023 and 2024 tax filing seasons made possible with additional resources. The past two filing seasons saw levels of service at roughly 85% and wait times averaging less than 5 minutes on the main phone lines, as well as significant increases in the number of taxpayers served at Taxpayer Assistance Centers across the country. Based the on IRS’ current plan and funding levels, the agency will work to provide similar levels of performance on these key service metrics in the upcoming filing season.

“This has been a historic period of improvement for the IRS, and people will see additional tools and features to help them with filing their taxes this tax season,” said IRS Commissioner Danny Werfel. “These taxpayer-focused improvements we’ve done so far are important, but they are just the beginning of what the IRS needs to do. More can be done with continued investment in the nation’s tax system.”

The Get Ready page on IRS.gov highlights steps taxpayers can take now to streamline the filing process and the many resources available to interact with the IRS before, during and after filing their federal tax return.

Direct File opens Jan. 27 for taxpayers in 25 states

On the first day of the filing season, Direct File will open to eligible taxpayers in 25 states to file their taxes directly with the IRS for free: 12 states that were part of the pilot last year, plus 13 new states where Direct File will be available in 2025. During last year’s pilot, Direct File was available in Arizona, California, Florida, Massachusetts, Nevada, New Hampshire, New York, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Washington State and Wyoming. For the 2025 tax filing season, Direct File will also be available in Alaska, Connecticut, Idaho, Illinois, Kansas, Maine, Maryland, New Jersey, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oregon, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.

Direct File will include new features this year to make filing taxes quicker and easier. Similar to commercial tax software, a data import tool will allow taxpayers to opt-in to automatically import data from their IRS account, including personal information, the taxpayer’s IP PIN and some information from the taxpayer’s W-2.

This year, Direct File users can try a new chat bot to help guide them through the eligibility checker. Live chat will again be available in English and Spanish, and users can opt into additional authentication and verification, which will allow customer service representatives to provide more information.

Also, this year, Direct File will cover more tax situations. During the pilot, Direct File supported taxpayers claiming the Earned Income Tax Credit, Child Tax Credit and Credit for Other Dependents. This year, Direct File will also cover taxpayers claiming the:

Child and Dependent Care Credit
Premium Tax Credit
Credit for the Elderly and Disabled
Retirement Savings Contribution Credits

In addition to covering taxpayers claiming the standard deduction and deductions for student loan interest and educator expenses, this year, Direct File will support taxpayers claiming deductions for Health Savings Accounts. The Treasury Department estimates that more than 30 million taxpayers will be eligible to use Direct File across the 25 states.

Direct File is a web-based service that works on mobile phones, laptops, tablets or desktop computers. It guides taxpayers through a series of questions to prepare their federal tax return step-by-step. Last year, thousands of Direct File users got help from IRS customer service representatives through a live chat feature in English and Spanish. Once taxpayers have completed their federal tax return, the Direct File system automatically guides them to state tools to complete their state tax filings.

Free File program opens early; available in English and Spanish

Although the IRS will not begin accepting tax returns until Jan. 27, taxpayers have several options available now to get a head start on their taxes.

Starting today, almost everyone can file electronically for free by using IRS Free File, available only on IRS.gov. Now in its 23rd year, Free File offers free tax preparation software from eight companies in the public-private partnership between the IRS and Free File Inc. As part of this partnership, tax preparation and filing software partners offer their online products to eligible taxpayers for free. To access these free tools, taxpayers must start from the IRS Free File page on IRS.gov.

This year, eight private-sector partners will provide online guided tax software products for taxpayers with an Adjusted Gross Income (AGI) of $84,000 or less in 2024. Additionally, one partner will offer a product in Spanish.

Although the IRS official tax filing season begins later this month, IRS Free File providers will allow taxpayers to prepare and file returns now and hold them until they can be electronically filed on that date. Many other software companies offer a similar option.

Choose Torgerson Financial Group

More than half of taxpayers turn to a tax professional for help filing a tax return. While most tax preparers deliver exceptional and professional service, selecting the wrong preparer can lead to financial harm.

Tax professionals like Torgerson Financial Group, is accepted into the IRS electronic filing program and are authorized IRS e-file providers, qualified to prepare, transmit and process electronically filed tax returns.