The US Department of the Treasury and Internal Revenue Service announced numbers from the IRS’s Direct File Pilot this week, and they’re a lot better than the agencies anticipated.The Treasury had a goal of 100,000 people using the program; in the end, 140,803 used it to file their taxes directly for free with the IRS, saving an estimated $5.6 million in tax preparation fees.Overall, Treasury says the program received positive ratings from users, with 90% of respondents rating their experience using the service “Excellent” or “Above Average.”The Direct File Pilot was created as part of President Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act and allowed taxpayers in 12 states with simple taxes the opportunity to file their taxes for free directly with the IRS. The states that participated in the pilot program either have no state income tax or offer a similar free filing tool at the state level as well.According to Treasury, the 140,803 taxpayers who filed using the program claimed more than $90 million in total refunds.
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Along with testing the free filing program, the pilot program also allowed the IRS to test a large-scale live-chat feature. The agency says that customer service reps handled tens of thousands of chats during tax season, with an average wait time of one minute.The IRS’ direct-file system went online in March and was available for taxpayers in Florida, New Hampshire, Nevada, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Washington, Wyoming, Arizona, Massachusetts, California, and New York who had a W-2, take the standard deduction, and make less than $125,000.
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