Filing your income tax return can be, for many, a dreaded annual task. And paying to file unnecessarily can only add insult to injury. Still, many eligible filers fail to take advantage of a free federal tax filing program, potentially overspending on filing fees every year to do something that’s required by law.
The Free File program — a partnership between the IRS and Free File Alliance — has been around for 23 years, plenty of time for the general public to be aware of its existence. Yet in 2024, the most recent year with available data, only 2% of federal returns were filed through Free File, even though 70% of filers qualified for the service, according to NerdWallet analysis of IRS data.
102 Million Eligible Filers Didn’t Use Free File
Each year, the income qualifications for Free File are adjusted to ensure that at least seven in 10 individual income tax filers are able to use the program. (For this filing season, those who had a 2025 adjusted gross income of $89,000 or less qualify.) Even so, a mere fraction of this share uses the tool each year.
In 2024, 2% filed using Free File — slightly less than the 10-year average of 2.2%. The remaining 102 million qualified filers may have overpaid to file their returns.
Some tax software providers — such as TurboTax and H&R Block — offer free versions of their online software, but many aren’t part of the Free File program and therefore don’t operate under the same rules. They may offer costly upgrades and have additional eligibility requirements. Still, an estimated 26.7 million federal income tax returns were filed on such commercial tax websites for free in 2024 outside of the Free File system, according to the American Coalition for Taxpayer Rights. That’s a lot more than the number who used Free File that year, but still a far cry from the more than 100 million who would have qualified under the federal no-cost program.
These large software companies also have marketing budgets that make them more ubiquitous than the Free File options, which is one reason the IRS program may go underutilized.
Direct File: One less free option in 2026
Direct File, a service that allowed taxpayers to file directly with the federal government at no cost, was dissolved after the 2025 filing year. The program was available for just two years, only in some states at first and accounted for fewer than 300,000 federal income tax returns filed and accepted in the first part of 2025, according to the IRS.
How to File For Free
This tax season, individual federal filers who meet the income requirement can access Free File software from the IRS website. There, users will answer a few questions before being directed to a compatible software provider. Accessing these providers directly from the IRS website ensures the page you land on is one managed by the program.
Federal taxpayers who prefer an analog approach can opt to use another option: IRS free fillable forms. This route is most similar to filing paper returns and lacks the hand-holding guidance of tax software.
Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) is another free IRS program generally open to people earning $69,000 or less, those with disabilities or people with limited English proficiency. VITA provides free, in-person tax preparation across the U.S. A similar program, Tax Counseling for the Elderly, specializes in assisting taxpayers age 60 and older.
If you don’t qualify for Free File — either because you earn too much or have a complicated tax situation — you may end up working with a commercial tax software. But taxpayers who use these tools should be vigilant about paid upgrades to ensure they’re only choosing add-ons that match their specific tax needs.