Cut out the middleman: New IRS pilot lets some Washington taxpayers file directly for free

Ranji Sinha
·2 min read

Monday, Jan. 29, is the first day to file your taxes, and for the first time in history, some Washington state taxpayers will file for free online directly with the Internal Revenue Service.

When it comes to filing taxes, there are many companies that you can pay to help you file, whether it’s brick-and-mortar accountants, or online filing platforms like TurboTax.

This year, the IRS is doing a soft launch of its online Direct File program that could be free to all taxpayers in the future. For 2024, select taxpayers from 13 states will try out the agency’s pilot free file system starting this month.

Washington is among the states trying it out, along with Arizona, California, Massachusetts, New York, Alaska, Florida, New Hampshire, Nevada, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, and Wyoming. The IRS says hundreds of thousands of taxpayers will participate in the limited rollout.

Filing for free in general is also an option. The IRS free file program is a public-private partnership between the IRS and tax preparation companies who provide their online tax preparation and filing for free. Free file provides two ways for taxpayers to prepare and file their federal income tax return.

Option 1:

  • Guided tax software provides free prep on sites that partner with the IRS at no cost to qualifying taxpayers.

  • Taxpayers whose annual gross income is $79,000 or less do qualify.

Option 2:

  • There are also free file fillable forms that are electronic federal tax forms, which is the equivalent to a paper 1040 form.

Jackson Hewitt’s chief tax information officer, Marke Steber, spoke to KIRO 7 and says free filing online can differ between different tax service firms.

“The difference between the different programs is level of service. Some have more robust functionality, some have less — which some people want — some include state, some do not. But make no mistake about it, they are free to prepare and free to file with different functionality, and taxpayers can pick the level of sophistication they want,” said Steber.