The Internal Revenue Service’s free online filing system is no more. First rolled out as a limited pilot in 2024 under the Biden administration, the Direct File program allowed taxpayers in certain ...

The IRS has ended the Direct File program, which let some taxpayers file their annual returns for free using software developed by the government. Many tax preparation companies opposed this, as did ...

Elizabeth Guevara is a personal finance reporter who explains the world of business and economics and how it impacts your finances. She joined Investopedia in 2024. HABesen/Getty Images The IRS is ...

Americans will have one fewer free option to file their taxes in 2026 after the Trump administration killed IRS Direct File. Without it, Direct File supporters said Americans will end up spending more ...

The IRS ended Direct File, the free, online pilot program that nearly 300,000 taxpayers in 25 states used to file returns for tax year 2024. The IRS website for Direct File says “Direct File is closed ...

Over two dozen states incorporated the free tax software in 2025, but the IRS has decided to discontinue the program. Peter is a writer and editor for the CNET How-To team. He has been covering ...

The IRS Direct File program is no longer available. (Photo by Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images for Economic Security Project) We knew that it was coming, but now we know for sure: Direct File, the free ...

If you’ve been using the internet for more than a month or so, you know that downloading files from unknown sites is a great way to get compromised. But the latest security update to Windows does a ...

Microsoft says that the File Explorer (formerly Windows Explorer) now automatically blocks previews for files downloaded from the Internet to block credential theft attacks via malicious documents.

Uncertainty surrounding the government-run tax filing service has been swirling for months. Uncertainty surrounding the government-run tax filing service has been swirling for months. is a news writer ...

Microsoft has announced that it will start disabling external workbook links to blocked file types by default between October 2025 and July 2026. After the rollout ...

For years, tech companies (well, certain tech companies) tooted their horns about a future in which files didn’t matter. You don’t even need a file manager of any sort, they told us—and, in fact, we ...