John,

American taxpayers spend around 2 billion hours and more than $30 billion filing their taxes each year.[1] Most of this money goes to huge tax prep corporations like TurboTax and H&R Block that have spent millions of dollars lobbying the federal government to make filing our taxes complex and expensive.

But there is good news.

This year, the IRS launched a successful pilot program of a new, free, online way to file your federal and state taxes. This new program, called Direct File, ran in 12 states and saved 140,000 taxpayers $5.6 million―plus hours of time spent filing their taxes.[2]

Now the IRS has announced that it’s making Direct File permanent and expanding it to all 50 states. But there’s a catch. Your governor needs to opt your state in.

Click here to send a message to your governor urging them to join the IRS’s new Direct File program to make filing your federal and state tax returns free and easy.

For years, tax preparation companies have used duplicitous means to mislead taxpayers, like hiding federally required free online options from online search engines and creating their own “free” edition of their software that tricked consumers and often led them to pay as much as $200 in a single tax filing season.[3]

Last year it was revealed that TaxAct, H&R Block, TaxSlayer, and other online tax preparers were illegally sharing taxpayers’ sensitive financial data with Google and Meta (the parent company of Facebook and Instagram)―in direct violation of taxpayer privacy laws.[4]

We can’t trust tax prep corporations to do the right thing. We need Direct File available to taxpayers in all 50 states.

Send a message to your governor today urging them to participate in Direct File in 2025 and beyond.

Together, we’re pushing back against the greed of the tax preparation industry and fighting for a tax code and tax filing system that works for everyone.

Thank you for taking action today,

David Kass
Executive Director
Americans for Tax Fairness Action Fund

[1] Everyday Americans would benefit from streamlined, reformed tax code
[2] IRS makes Direct File a permanent option to file federal tax returns; expanded access for more taxpayers planned for the 2025 filing season
[3] TurboTax Deliberately Hid Its Free File Page From Search Engines
[4] Attacks on Tax Privacy