Overview

• IRS Commissioner Billy Long officially announced on August 1 that the free Direct File service has been terminated, confirming the program is “gone.”
• Direct File launched in 2023, was piloted in select states during 2024, and expanded in early 2025 to process over 300,000 returns and save taxpayers an estimated $5.6 million.
• President Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill mandates a Treasury task force to develop public-private partnership alternatives to the government-run filing system.
• Senator Elizabeth Warren and other critics say ending Direct File benefits commercial tax-prep giants like TurboTax and H&R Block at the expense of low-cost taxpayer options.
• The IRS signaled a shift toward modernized audit technology and is awaiting a required Treasury report to Congress on replacement filing solutions.