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  1. Taxes
  2. IRS

How to Get Access to the IRS's New Free Tax Software

By: Adam Hardy
Adam Hardy, expert in Personal finance, student loans, credit, job market, low-income finances, and Lead data journalist at Money
Adam Hardy
Lead data journalist | Joined May 2024
Adam Hardy is a lead data journalist at Money, where he frequently reports on financial barriers that affect low-income Americans. Adam’s work has also appeared in Business Insider, Forbes, Nasdaq, The Penny Hoarder, Yahoo! Finance and many other outlets.
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Editor: Julia Glum
Julia Glum, expert in the IRS, taxes, credit scores, saving, colleges, mobile payment apps, and News Editor at Money
Julia Glum
News Editor | Joined February 2018
A graduate of the University of Florida, Julia has more than five years of experience in personal finance journalism. In addition to overseeing news coverage, she leads Money’s tax coverage, which includes extensive reporting on tax credits, policy changes and the IRS.
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Published: Mar 06, 2024 6 min read
Keyboard spelling out TAX
Money; Getty Images

This tax season, the IRS is rolling out a new way for some Americans to file for free.

As of Tuesday, the agency’s free guided tax-filing software, called Direct File, is open to millions of taxpayers from a dozen states as part of a pilot test. A Spanish-language version is also available.

The IRS says that, during the test, the software will accept returns from people with simple tax situations, such as a parent with W-2 employment income who plans to claim the child tax credit or a retiree living off Social Security income.

The agency estimates that more than 18 million Americans are eligible to test Direct File during the pilot.

Here’s what you should know if you want to file your 2023 taxes for free using the IRS’s new software. (Note: This tool is different from IRS Free File, which is available to anyone who made under $79,000 last year and opened in January.)