Tax Filing Season to Start Jan. 27, With Expanded Direct File

Tax filing season in the US will begin Jan. 27 and end April 15, with the IRS promising to sustain its momentum of improved service and digital offerings from last year.

About 30 million taxpayers will also have another option to file for free with the IRS, with the agency’s new electronic filing tool Direct File opening to an expanded group of taxpayers at the start of filing season.

Direct File, which has been a flashpoint among the tax preparation software industry and Republicans, will be available to taxpayers with low to moderate incomes in 25 states. Illinois was recently added as a qualifying state, the IRS said Friday.

Many taxpayers can also file for free through Free File, the IRS’s partnership with tax preparation software companies, which is open for taxpayers who have an adjusted gross income of $84,000 or less in 2024.

The IRS, with the tens of billions of extra cash from the 2022 tax-and-climate law, said it outperformed many of its goals last filing season after it hired thousands more customer service representatives and improved some of taxpayer-facing technology, which it will provide again this year.

“Our ability to continue making progress on all these funds can only happen if the IRS receives a consistent, reliable funding stream,” IRS Commissioner Danny Werfel said in a press call Friday.

The update comes as Republicans prepare to take full control of the White House and Congress. Republicans have vowed to cut federal spending and have consistently taken aim at the added funding the agency got in the 2022 law.

The IRS expects to receive more than 140 million individual tax returns by the April deadline.

National Taxpayer Advocate Erin Collins has criticized how the IRS measured the success of answering phone last filing season, calling it misleading.