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IRS Direct File

Helping over 140,00 taxpayers file for free

A render of the Direct File homepage on a laptop. The screen reads 'file your taxes for free' and has a button for users to check their eligibility.

On Direct File, I worked with a fast-paced team to design experiences that made sure taxpayers didn't waste their time and ensured they felt good about submitting their return. Direct File served 140,000 taxpayers across 12 states in the 2024 tax season.

Project details

Partner

Internal Revenue Service

My role

UX designer

My contribution

  • User experience
  • Interface design
  • Click-through prototyping

Impact

140,000 taxpayers served across 12 states

In 2024, the IRS piloted Direct File to simplify the tax process.

A majority of taxpayers in the U.S. spend hours of time and sometimes hundreds of dollars on paid solutions to file their tax returns each season. This is particularly costly and frustrating for low-income individuals. For these folks, the extra cost can become a real burden.

As part of 18F, I worked with partners at the IRS, the U.S. Digital Service, and several civic tech contractor teams to design the first pilot of Direct File for the 2024 tax season.

I designed a prototype eligibility screener.

Even though Direct File greatly simplified the tax filing process, it still requires taxpayers to answer a lot of questions. I worked on the user interface and an interactive prototype for the eligibility screener. This makes sure folks know if they qualify for the pilot before diving in. Because Direct File will continue to have some limitations in its first few years, it’s crucial if people know if it will work for them before getting started.

A collage of wireframes for the eligibility screener.
When I originally designed the layouts for the eligibility screener, we hadn't yet decided on exactly how we were going to combine the U.S. Web Design system with IRS' brand guidelines, so I had to make some early decisions. Some of these carried over to the final product. One major thing we learned from testing this prototype was that it really didn't work as a questionnaire. Having one set of questions immediately before another just wasn't right. The final screener has the same information but is more informational instead of being a form taxpayers have to actually fill out.

I mapped out early versions of the “sign and submit” workflow.

Getting to the end of your tax return and finally hitting “submit” can be a scary thing. There are multiple ways to “sign” your tax return, and there are several potential points of stress even at the end of the process. Early on in the project, I mapped out the “sign and submit” workflow. This made sure taxpayers could finish filling out their return with confidence, and set the stage to make sure they knew what would come next.

A workflow diagram for the sign and submit process. A few segments are being zoomed in on showing points of stress and 'knockout' points.
It turned out that even at the very end of the workflow, there were still a ton of paths taxpayers could go down. I focused on identifying points where they might be particualrly stressed, as well as places where they might find out they couldn't file their taxes through Direct File after all. One thing that was particularly interesting to me was figuring out who actually needed to "sign" if you were filing jointly with your spouse. If only one person had their phone or laptop up, would someone's spouse have to come over to the device? Would anyone even know? Breaking down the workflow carefully like this was instrumental in creating a easy-to-use product that was also compliant with regulations.

Direct File served 140,000 taxpayers in 2024.

My work on the eligibility screener informed a lot of what ended up in the final product, particularly my focus on making the various lists of requirements easier to scan. My work on the sign and submit workflow uncovered several challenging questions and ultimately helped the team make some important choices about how to streamline the experience even further.

Direct File went on to serve over 140,000 taxpayers across 12 states and was generally well received by the public. The IRS announced it’s intent to make Direct File permanent in 2025, with the plan to expand to more states.