Reports of the IRS Direct File’s death may not have been exaggerated after all.
The agency’s free program for filing electronic tax returns may be the latest victim of the Trump administration’s DOGE efficiency team, according to reporting by the Associated Press. It cited two anonymous sources familiar with the decision who said staff were told to stop working on the program for the 2026 tax filing season.
Rumors of the service’s demise began back in February with a social media post from Elon Musk, the head of DOGE, who claimed the office responsible for IRS’s Direct File had been “deleted.” Whatever Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency — or DOGE — may be doing, Direct File has remained available for residents of the 25 states where it has been rolled out so far.
The official IRS webpage currently displays a message urging users to file quickly if they missed the April 15 deadline or to find out if their deadline was extended due to a natural disaster.
While it is unclear what might happen to the service in the near future, an IRS representative responding to an inquiry from CNET said that tax returns already submitted through Direct File will be treated like any other return and shouldn’t be impacted by any changes to the program.
What is Direct File?
Direct File was first rolled out by the IRS in 2024 in 12 states as a service allowing taxpayers to file their annual returns directly to the agency for free. It was an extension of the earlier but less fleshed-out Free File service. Musk’s claim about eliminating the program raised concern and confusion for many, as the service had been well-received overall.
The program was also expanded for 2025, with new features and availability in 25 states.
The Trump administration’s moves, including an indefinite hiring freeze at the IRS, have prompted concerns about whether tax return processing will be slowed down this year. Still, these worries appear to be unfounded for the time being.
Will Direct File go away?
Speaking with CNET via email correspondence, Jassen Bowman, an IRS enrolled agent and expert on all things taxes, noted that both the agency and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent have committed to keeping the program going through at least the 2025 filing season. However, given the chaotic state of things right now, its future in the short term isn’t clear, and it could be subjected to erratic decision-making, so anyone who still needs to use it this year should act quickly.
“All that said, things have become a bit unpredictable in Washington, so there is always a chance that the administration could decide to pull the program,” Bowman wrote. “My advice for people that are eligible to use Direct File would be to use it, but closely monitor the status of their return as it’s processed and, of course, keep copies of everything they submitted.”
How can I use Direct File safely this year?
On the subject of whether the program will be around for the rest of the 2025 tax season, Bowman went into more detail about the steps taxpayers should take with Direct File if they opt to use it this year.
“Anybody using Direct File for their 2024 tax return should closely monitor the status of the return,” Bowman explained. “Processing should take less than a few days. On top of that, don’t throw away those W-2s and other documents. Instead, keep all the documents you used to file your return and keep a copy of the tax return itself. This is always good advice, but particularly so now. If the IRS does shut down the program, they would most likely process returns that were already filed.”
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