WA to participate in IRS free tax filing pilot program

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is trying to make it easier for people to file their taxes, and they are starting with a pilot program for a free tax filing program in Washington state.

The IRS is inviting some residents of 13 states to try out their Direct File program, with several hundred thousand expected to participate in the rollout.

More news: Supreme Court Justice Alito rejects Democrats’ call to step aside from WA tax case

“This is a critical step forward for this innovative effort that will test the feasibility of providing taxpayers a new option to file their returns for free directly with the IRS,” said IRS Commissioner Danny Werfel in a news release.

“In this limited pilot for 2024, we’ll be working closely with the states that have agreed to participate in an important test run of the state integration,” Werfel continued. “This will help us gather important information about the future direction of the Direct File program.”

The reason Washington was chosen for the program is that there is no state income tax, and taxpayers in nine other states without an income tax – Alaska, Florida, New Hampshire, Nevada, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Washington and Wyoming — are also be eligible to participate in the pilot, according to the IRS.

IRS officials are working with tax experts in Arizona, California, Massachusetts and New York, who all have a state income tax, to develop a system to expand the program further, and is expected to go into effect in 2024.

The IRS was tasked with looking into how to create a “direct file” system as part of the funding it received from the Inflation Reduction Act, which gave the IRS nine months and $15 million to determine how to create such a system.

The Associated Press contributed to this report