Washington (April 16, 2003) - More than 2.4 million Americans have prepared and filed their taxes on-line for free using the Free File Web site as of April 9, according to the Treasury and Internal Revenue Service.
In February 2002, President Bush proposed free online tax filing as one of his E-Government initiatives. Less than one year later, the Treasury Department, Office of Management and Budget and the IRS launched the Free File Web site featuring private-sector partners that allow most taxpayers to prepare and file their taxes online for free. Treasury, OMB and IRS made this possible through a public-private partnership with a consortium of tax software companies, the Free File Alliance, LLC.
“No one likes paying taxes-it’s too confusing and time consuming. With this new Free File Web site, we’re seeing great success that has saved more than 2 million taxpayers time and money-and an even bigger bonus is they get their refunds in half the time,” stated Treasury Secretary John Snow. “We hope that, in years to come, even more taxpayers will take advantage of the Free File program.”
Free File, together with IRS's pending legislative proposal for a 15-day filing extension for e-filers, is intended to further progress towards achieving Congress' target of 80 percent of taxpayers e-filing by 2007.
-- WebCPA staff
