First State Times

United States Senators Tom Carper (D-Del.) and Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass), alongside Representatives Brad Sherman (D-Calif.), Katie Porter (D-Calif.) and Don Beyer (D-Va.), led a coalition of 99 Democratic lawmakers in sending a letter to Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Commissioner Daniel Werfel and Deputy Treasury Secretary Adewale Adeyemo, applauding the IRS’ announcement of a pilot  of a free tax filing tool next year. The lawmakers shared their support for making a strong tool available to as many taxpayers as feasible in 2024 and for continuing to build the free and easier tax filing tool that Americans want and deserve.

Last month, the IRS released its long-awaited report demonstrating the feasibility and importance of a free, government-owned direct file tool, and announced its intention – at Treasury’s direction – to pilot such a tool during the next filing season. The tool will save many hardworking Americans the $140 on average they pay to file their taxes, and help provide low-income taxpayers the opportunity to claim thousands of dollars in benefits that have been missed due to the expense and difficulty of filing a return. The report also revealed that taxpayers would feel overall more secure filing their taxes directly with the government, than through a private tax software company.

“We urge you to make this pilot of the direct file tool available to as many taxpayers as is feasible, in order to deliver real value quickly to American taxpayers and demonstrate the value of modernizing the IRS, while also gathering data to make improvements and to better serve American taxpayers,” wrote the lawmakers. “We also know that next year’s pilot is only the first step toward the robust direct file system that Americans deserve.”

The lawmakers noted that the average American spends eight hours and $140 every year filing their personal taxes, often turning to tax preparation services that “should be free, are advertised to be free, but all too often are, in fact, not free for taxpayers.” The Free File program, a partnership with private tax preparation companies, was supposed to serve 70 percent of taxpayers but reached only 2 percent in the 2022 tax year. 

“This broken system is not only an unauthorized tax on middle-class families, but also a significant obstacle to the IRS fulfilling its role as our country’s second-largest benefits administrator,” wrote the lawmakers. “The expense and difficulty of filing a tax return prevents millions of American families every year from claiming thousands of dollars in benefits Congress has authorized via the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) and Child Tax Credit (CTC).”

Last month, Senator Carper led another letter to the IRS urging the agency to take action to simplify the tax filing process and expand access to free e-filing options. He has continuously advocated for equity and access to the tax filing system for American taxpayers, including just yesterday when he co-sponsored the bipartisan Refund Equality Act.  

In addition to Senators Carper and Warren in the Senate and Representatives Sherman, Porter and Beyer in the House, the letter was also signed by Senators Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), Ed Markey (D-Mass.), Chris Coons (D-Del.), Jack Reed (D-R.I.), Peter Welch (D-Vt.), Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.),  Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), Tammy Duckworth  (D-Ill.), Michael Bennet (D-Colo.), Bob Casey (D-Penn.), Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii), Tina Smith (D-Minn.), Angus King (I-Maine), John Fetterman (D-Pa.), Tim Kaine (D-Va.), Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), Patty Murray (D-Wash.), Cory Booker (D-N.J.), John Hickenlooper (D-Colo.), Ben Cardin (D-Md.), Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii), Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.), Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.), Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.),  Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), and Ben Ray Luján (D-N.M.) and Representatives Melanie Stansbury (D-N.M.), Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.), Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-N.J.), Jim McGovern (D-Mass.), Nanette Diaz Barragán (D-Calif.), Ro Khanna (D-Calif.), Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), Andy Kim (D-N.J.), Hank Johnson (D-Ga.), Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.), Barbara Lee (D-Calif.), Dwight Evans (D-Pa.), Lloyd Doggett (D-Texas), Mark Pocan (D-Wis.), Salud Carbajal (D-Calif.), Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.), Seth Moulton (D-Mass.), Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.), Madeleine Dean (D-Pa.), Rick Larsen (D-Wash.), Sara Jacobs (D-Calif.), Adam Smith (D-Wash.), Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.), David Trone (D-Md.), Mark Takano (D-Calif.), Jasmine Crockett (D-Texas), Greg Landsman (D-Ohio,), Yvette Clarke (D-N.Y.), Suzanne Bonamici (D-Ore.), Becca Balint (D-Vt.), Jamal Bowman (D-N.Y.), Betty McCollum (D-Minn.), Nikema Williams (D-Ga.), Jill Tokuda (D-Hawaii), Danny Davis (D-Ill.), Al Green (D-Texas.), Robert Garcia (D-Calif.), Judy Chu (D-Calif.), Dan Goldman (D-N.Y.), Kweisi Mfume (D-Md.), Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), Raul Grijalva (D-Ariz.), Jim Costa (D-Calif.), Lisa Blunt Rochester (D-Del.), Greg Casar (D-Texas), Mary Gay Scanlon (D-Pa.), Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas), Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.), Valerie Foushee (D-N.C.), André Carson (D-Ind.), Seth Magaziner (D-R.I.), Diana DeGette (D-Colo.), Darren Soto (D-Fla.), Jared Huffman (D-Calif.), Donald Payne (D-N.J.), Vicente Gonzalez (D-Texas), Sean Casten (D-Ill.), Alma Adams (D-N.C.), and Chris Deluzio (D-Pa.).

Original source can be found here.