Some taxpayers can get an early start on filing their federal income taxes for the 2020 season.
Taxpayers can start filing their 2019 taxes through the IRS Free File program, which opened on Jan. 10. Taxpayers must have an adjusted gross income of $69,000 or less for 2019 to use Free File, according to the IRS’ website.
Free File allows taxpayers to do their taxes now, but they won’t be submitted by a Free File provider to the IRS until Jan. 27, the official start of the 2020 tax filing season.
“Free File online products offer free federal tax return preparation, free electronic filing and free direct deposit of refunds to help get your money faster,” said Chuck Rettig, IRS commissioner in a press release. “The IRS has worked to improve the program for this year, and we encourage taxpayers to visit IRS.gov, and consider using the Free File option to get a head start on tax season.”
The IRS has several Free File partners: “1040Now, Inc., ezTaxReturn.com (English and Spanish), FileYourTaxes.com, Free tax Returns.com, H&R Block, Intuit, On-Line Taxes, Inc., Tax ACT, TaxHawk, Inc. and TaxSlayer (English and Spanish),” according to its release.
Free File debuted in 2003. Since its launch, nearly 57 million taxpayers have been served.
Free File is a public-private partnership between the IRS and Free File Inc. Free File Inc. is a consortium of tax software providers that offer Free File products available at irs.gov/freefile
The IRS estimates that taxpayers who have used Free File have saved $1.7 billion in tax preparation fees.