Press Release
High User Satisfaction Marks a Second Year of Success for IRS Direct File Tool Despite Trump Administration Threats
04. 15. 2025
Ccelebrating the IRS Direct File tool’s success in its second year, and sounding the alarm on efforts to take it away
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WASHINGTON – Hundreds of thousands of Americans used the IRS Direct File tool to file their taxes this year, and it has received overwhelmingly high marks and near-unanimous satisfaction from users with a Net Promoter Score of +84 (+70 is considered world-class). The first-of-its-kind, secure, simple, and always free tax filing option provided by the IRS was designed to help reduce the costs and complexities associated with tax filing. Despite its success and efficiency, current federal instability threatens the tool’s future.
The Coalition for Free and Fair Filing, a coalition of national, state, and grassroots organizations advocating for a free, IRS-run online tax filing tool, has released the following statement:
In 2024, the IRS proved it could build a free tax filing solution that works for Americans—a milestone that advocates have spent years fighting for. The Direct File tool allowed hundreds of thousands of tax filers to file their taxes for free, saw high user satisfaction ratings, added support for more tax situations, added a revolutionary data pre-population feature, and doubled the number of states in which taxpayers are eligible to use the tool.
The idea behind Direct File has always been a simple, nonpartisan proposition: fulfilling your tax filing obligations should be easy and free, as it is in many other countries.
Direct File was on a clear path to full scale and lasting success before the Trump administration began to slowly bleed it dry. An intentional assault against the IRS, which has unfolded over the past several months, has caused instability and uncertainty that significantly hampered the agency’s ability to ensure that taxpayers across the country knew about this transformative new tool. Outreach staff were laid off, IRS publicity efforts were severely curtailed, and Elon Musk himself stoked misinformation and confusion about the tool’s availability. If the Trump Administration wants “government efficiency,” kneecapping one of the most promising tools in the government that’s delivering for American taxpayers is not the way to get it.
The fact that Direct File has continued to consistently impress taxpayers and grow throughout the 2025 tax season is a testament to its strength. Survey after survey shows that the overwhelming majority of taxpayers want the IRS to provide a free, easy way for them to file their taxes. Direct File remains a powerful example of what is possible when the government puts the interests of regular people above those of billionaires and corporations. Our Coalition firmly believes Direct File should continue to be available in the coming years, and we will continue to advocate for free and fair tax filing for all.
Though the IRS has yet to publish user data on all 25 states, data from Code for America on 2025 users in a cross-section of Direct File states (AZ, ID, MD, NC, and NJ, which use CFA’s FileYourStateTaxes tool for their state taxes) show the tool is once again an undeniable success:
- 98% of users were “satisfied” or “very satisfied” with their filing experience; 84% were “very satisfied”
- Direct File + FileYourStateTaxes receives a Net Promoter Score of +87, with 89% of users ranking their experience at 9 or 10
- 94% prefer Direct File + FileYourStateTaxes to their previous filing method
- Median time to complete a state return after federal data transfer was 6.5 minutes
- Over 95% of users were able to submit their state return without assistance
If you are interested in speaking further about Direct File with a member of the Coalition For Free And Fair Filing, please contact Jenna Severson at [email protected] or Manisha Sunil at [email protected].