Direct File Won't Happen in 2026, IRS Tells States

NextGov: The IRS has notified states that offered the free, government tax filing service known as Direct File in 2025 that the program won't be available next filing season. In an email sent from the IRS to 25 states, the tax agency thanked them for collaborating and noted that 'no launch date has been set for the future.'

'IRS Direct File will not be available in Filing Season 2026,' says the Monday email, obtained by Nextgov/FCW and confirmed by multiple sources. It follows reports that the program was ending and Trump's former tax chief, Billy Long, remarking over the summer that the service was 'gone.'

The program, which debuted in 2024, was a big shift from the decades-long IRS policy of not competing with the tax prep industry in offering its own free, online tax filing service for Americans. Many Republicans had opposed Direct File, and tax prep companies also lobbied against it.

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