New Jersey is joining the Direct File tax program introduced by the Internal Revenue Service for the 2025 tax season.
Gov. Phil Murphy and U.S. Department of the Treasury Deputy Secretary Wally Adeyemo announced Wednesday afternoon that New Jersey taxpayers would be eligible to use the program from the outset of the 2025 filing season.
“Government is supposed to make life easier not harder,” Murphy said. “For too long our outdated processes for filing taxes have created unnecessary difficulties for too many families.”
Who will be eligible for Direct File in New Jersey?
The governor said that more than 1 million New Jersey residents — possibly as many as 1.3 million — will have this free option.
It will be available for those filing simple tax forms for both federal and state taxes online and will assist with claims for credits, deductions and refunds that residents are eligible for.
The program was introduced for the 2024 filing season as a pilot program in 12 states — the Garden State was not included at that time. More than 140,000 individuals throughout the country used the program.
The agency estimates it assisted users in claiming more than $90 million in refunds and saved an estimated $5.6 billion in filing costs.
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What are the Direct File program's intentions?
Adeyemo said Direct File is “meant to do two of the most important things that we can, make life as easy for the American people and also lower their costs to make sure they have money to put in the pockets of their children.”
Since the feedback the IRS received was positive and the pilot program was deemed a success, the agency is now expanding the program to include more tax situations and all states to participate.
The pilot program focused on what the agency described as “relatively simple tax situations” but expanding the scope is a goal, especially those that “impact working families.”
The free program is considered an alternative as opposed to a replacement for the free programs that already exist.
Katie Sobko covers the New Jersey Statehouse. Email: sobko@northjersey.com
This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: New Jersey joins IRS' Direct File income tax program: What you should know
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