ORLANDO, Fla. – The 12-state Direct File pilot program launched by the IRS in March will potentially serve more than 18 million taxpayers, 2.4 million in Florida alone, and according to IRS commissioner Daniel Werfel, security protocol will protect every taxpayer’s information.
“I can say that affirmatively,” Werfel told News 6 during a recent teleconference from Washington. “After going through this with thousands of taxpayers (…) the hypothesis that we have created a very secure environment is proving true.”
Werfel said the IRS is looking closely at rolling out the Direct File online service to taxpayers in all 50 states, but no formal decision or timeline has been worked out yet.
“News so far on the results are encouraging, but we’re not done, we want to get through April 15,” Werfel told reporters, “I think that it’s worth noting that a lot of states are monitoring, interested if Direct File goes forward, working with us next year.”
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Werfel said the Direct File system is efficient, allowing for taxpayers to “save their progress and take a break.”
Werfel said users can get special support from IRS representatives with a “live chat” feature included in the Direct File option.
The state-by-state eligibility is topped by California with more than 5 million “potentially eligible taxpayers” while Wyoming has the least eligible at just 80,000 taxpayers.
For more information click here to go to DirectFile.irs.gov.
Here is the complete list provided by the IRS:
| State | Est. of potentially eligible taxpayers |
|---|---|
| California | 5.2 million |
| Arizona | 690,000 |
| Florida | 2.4 million |
| Massachusetts | 850,000 |
| New Hampshire | 200,000 |
| Nevada | 480,000 |
| New York | 2.8 million |
| South Dakota | 110,000 |
| Tennessee | 960,000 |
| Texas | 3.8 million |
| Washington | 1.1 million |
| Wyoming | 80,000 |
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