Congressman introduces bill to autofill tax forms

Rep. Bill Foster, D-Illinois, introduced legislation that would create a voluntary tax filing program enabling taxpayers to use a secure IRS website to download a tax form that's already automatically populated with information the IRS already collects from employers, the Social Security Administration and financial institutions. 

Under the bill, dubbed the Autofill Act, the information from the prepopulated tax forms would be available as both a printable document and a computer-readable file compatible with existing tax preparation software. Unlike the IRS's Free File program, the service would be available for taxpayers at all income levels and would not rely on outside companies in the commercial tax prep industry. The technology would function as a replacement for the Direct File program, the free tax-filing program that the Trump administration ended last November. 

"It's long past time to make the tax filing process more efficient and less expensive for the American people," Foster said in a statement on Tax Day. "There's no reason why we can't make it easier for taxpayers to access the information the IRS already has on file. This is a commonsense solution that will save people time and money, and help bring our tax filing process into the 21st century."

He pointed to the results of a December 2024 report from the Government Accountability Office that found Direct File to be a successful, no-cost alternative for taxpayers when it was pilot-tested earlier that year in 12 states. However, the report also found the IRS was behind schedule with recruiting and training customer service agents to help taxpayers use it in the 24 states where Direct File was slated to be available in 2025, due in part to insufficient coordination among various IRS offices. The Direct File program actually expanded to 25 states before the IRS pulled the plug.

The Free File program already includes an option where taxpayers can fill out their tax forms online and submit, known as Free File Fillable Forms. However, the information in the forms does not come prepopulated with information from the IRS, Social Security and banks, as it would under the AutoFill Act. IRS CEO Frank Bisignano said during a congressional hearing about tax season on Tax Day that Free File had seen an increase in usage this year.

"We have seen that this filing season, over 2 million taxpayers have taken advantage of Free File," he said. "During this filing season, millions more have used free options provided by private industry also."