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Coforma
Public Interest

Pioneering IRS Direct File—a Free E-Filing System for American Taxpayers

The IRS sought to transform the taxpayer experience by designing and deploying an intuitive platform Americans could use to file their taxes.

The Challenge: Democratizing Tax Filing in the Digital Age

Client Name:
Internal Revenue Service
Partner Name(s):
US Digital Service; GSA 18F; Truss
Delivery Date:
May 2024

When the IRS wanted to create a free, user-friendly e-filing service, the agency partnered with Coforma to build this new public-interest technology, marking a significant step forward in the digital transformation of tax filing.

Historically, over 90 percent of US tax returns have been processed through paid preparers or commercial software—and the cost is significant. An American taxpayer can expect to spend an estimated 13 hours and incur $240 out-of-pocket expenses just to prepare and file their annual return. For many low-income individuals, this added expenditure is a heavy burden. To shift this paradigm, the IRS needed a robust yet user-friendly e-filing solution that could address the complexities of tax law, diverse taxpayer requirements, data security and privacy, and user accessibility needs. 

In response to the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act’s mandate to explore the feasibility of a direct e-filing tool, the IRS launched the Direct File pilot program for the 2024 filing season. Developed in collaboration with the US Digital Service, 18F, Truss, and Coforma, this initiative aimed to provide a free, straightforward method for eligible taxpayers to prepare and file their federal income tax returns. 

The Direct File pilot program was strategically released in 12 states, specifically supporting taxpayers with simple tax situations. This limited approach allowed the project teams to incrementally develop the system in a manageable, controlled setting while collecting critical insights for its future evolution.

Leveraging human-centered design and research methodologies, Coforma ensured the new service accurately met taxpayer needs. We emphasized usability testing and employed iterative design processes to develop a mobile-friendly, bilingual interface that was intuitive, secure, and accessible.

The Direct File pilot sets a new standard for government digital services and public interest technology. By providing a cost-free alternative to traditional tax services, the pilot demonstrated its potential to save taxpayers millions annually and substantially simplify the filing process.

The way that it was laid out was just so darn easy to understand and I just see it being helpful for so many millions of people.
Dixie Wardenfirst Direct File user, AP News
It’s an example of the difference that technology can play in delivering government services.
Former President Barack ObamaThreads, April 2024
Direct File . . . [is] a glimpse of a world where government tech benefits millions of Americans.
Saahil DesaiThe Atlantic
[Direct File is] a small step toward a world where people don’t need commercial tax software. But it’s a meaningful step, and the case for taking things slow is surprisingly compelling.
Dylan MatthewsVox News

Our Approach: Strategic Cross-Functional Collaboration Meets Human-Centered Design

The pilot design’s success was driven by strategic cross-functional collaboration focusing on human-centered design principles and accessibility.

To build and implement the IRS Direct File pilot program, team members from diverse disciplines—research, engineering, design, content, project management, and more—applied their expertise broadly within a structured yet nimble project framework, ensuring adaptability in response to evolving challenges. 

These resources were integrated on blended teams, with IRS employees working alongside Coforma and our contracting partners from USDS, 18F, and Truss. Each team seamlessly incorporated multiple disciplines, working in tandem to iteratively identify solutions to high-level requirements, build new features based on user feedback, and prioritize project tasks. 

This cross-functional, collaborative approach allowed the IRS to leverage expertise across the government and private sector, but it also required a high level of communication, coordination, and cooperation. Coforma prioritized open and ongoing dialogue and established a weekly release cadence, which enabled swift decision-making, rapid iteration, and continuous feedback integration. This real-time communication helped maintain workflow alignment and kept the project on track. For Direct File pilot users, this meant we could continue expanding scope and making the app better throughout filing season.

Designers and engineers collaborated early and often on the project, with members from both disciplines working together through early-stage iterations. Members of our product teams partnered with IRS Tax subject matter experts from idea to implementation to ensure we got it right. We regularly consulted customer-support teams on product decisions so we could be sure they were equipped to support users at launch. This integrated workflow kept the design team informed of Direct File’s technical boundaries, so feasibility was always front and center. It also helped ensure the engineers were mindful of any impacts to the user experience, streamlined the development process, and baked accessibility in at every stage.

Animation showing desktop and mobile versions of the IRS Direct File website in English and Spanish

Results: A Successful Pilot Program in 12 States

The pilot’s initial success indicates significant potential for Direct File to simplify the tax filing process, making it more accessible and less stressful for millions of Americans. By offering a free, user-friendly platform, Direct File can potentially save taxpayers millions of dollars in preparation fees and improve their overall filing experience.

In May 2024, the IRS announced that it will make Direct File a permanent option for filing federal tax returns starting in the 2025 tax season. Coforma will continue to support the agency in its efforts to broaden Direct File’s availability and enhance its features in the coming year. 

The IRS has committed to refining Direct File through comprehensive analysis and stakeholder engagement. These data-driven insights will inform enhancements that further improve the system’s efficiency and efficacy across an increased number of tax scenarios, states, languages, and more.

The Public Interest impact of the Direct File Pilot Program is extensive, and includes saving an estimated $5.6 million in tax preparation fees.

Intentional recruitment + direct feedback = improved usability

Intentional recruitment + direct feedback = improved usability

Thoughtful Research

Our research team meticulously designed our participant recruitment strategy, ensuring it was inclusive and representative of Direct File’s diverse user base. We conducted virtual studies in both English and Spanish and included perspectives from taxpayers who rely on assistive technology. Our team also partnered with community-based organizations to conduct extensive outreach among people on the lower income scale, ensuring those who will use and benefit most from this technology had a voice in its design. 

Our researchers worked throughout the project to continuously improve the taxpayer experience, partnering with the IRS team to conduct 33 studies with 195 taxpayers. Rather than bombarding participants with questions, we observed users as they went through the tax filing process, gathering direct feedback to identify challenge areas and improve the usability of these sections. 

Example showing two screens developed with user-validated design, ensuring ease of use.

Through a human-centered design approach, the team iterated on feedback from diverse users to make things easy to understand.

User-Validated Designs

To best support taxpayers through a complicated process, Direct File needed to be as easy to use and understand as possible. Coforma approached the challenge with a human-centered mindset, employing one-on-one interviews, observations, usability testing, and direct engagement with diverse perspectives throughout our research process. Our findings directly influenced design decisions; feedback cycles identified areas for improvement; and observational data helped gauge the ease of interaction with the platform. 

To inform our iterative design process, we encouraged participants to provide candid critiques throughout the pilot so our team could learn what they liked or wanted to see improved. As a result, critical improvements to Direct File often stemmed directly from taxpayer feedback. We were quick to integrate this communication, coordinating across content, language translation, design, and engineering teams to add functionality and enhancements throughout the project. 

Image showing a checklist highlighting content-first approach

A checklist demonstrates a content-first approach to facilitate the complex information flow.

Content-First Approach

Our content, product, UX, and visual designers adopted a true content-first approach to facilitate complex information flow and make the content easier to interact with. We did this to reduce the mental and financial burden of tax filing and increase tax fluency by providing transparent, clear explanations and a friendly user experience for all. By leveraging existing components from the US Web Design System, the team was able to focus efforts on taxpayer needs from the start rather than spending time and overhead building a UI framework from scratch. The US Web Design System is used on nearly every public-facing website in the federal government, so using these components conveys a sense of familiarity and trust to taxpayers.   

Specific techniques we used included maximizing white space and incorporating an approachable font in our visual style guide. Our content team worked in close collaboration with researchers, UX designers, accessibility specialists, translators, engineers, and tax code specialists to fine-tune messaging and taxonomy, ensuring the information was simple and comprehensible for all users. We also developed a user-centered content strategy to determine when extra supporting information or external links were needed—and how best to present that additional information to make tax filing easier.

Screen highlighting forms developed after testing with participants who had diverse accessibility needs

Accessibility started from the outset, with the team ensuring inclusion of participants with diverse needs.

Accessible from the Outset

Because accessibility was of utmost importance to the project, we prioritized it from the beginning, starting with our research. Our team made sure to include participants with diverse accessibility needs and conducted sessions in both English and Spanish. Working in partnership with the National Federation for the Blind, we conducted multiple observational studies and feedback cycles with users who rely on assistive technology.

The Direct File team included four accessibility specialists, which allowed us to explore and identify the best solutions within our technical and project constraints, ensuring multiple expert perspectives were considered in our decision-making process. We routinely evaluated our work using various assistive technologies, including voiceover, NVDA, and JAWS. When defects were identified, we prioritized and addressed them promptly, often implementing fixes within hours.

Two mobile screens showing English and Spanish versions of Direct File available at launch

Two mobile screens showing English and Spanish versions of Direct File available at launch

Bilingual at Launch

To deliver a bilingual product in plain language that would help guide both English and Spanish speakers through the complicated process of filing taxes, Coforma prioritized user research and feedback, advocating for increased use of approachable, conversational words and phrases. Our bilingual content designers identified over 5,600 keys that needed translations and worked with third-party translators and Spanish-speaking users to ensure these translations resulted in easy-to-understand instructions and a logical information flow. 

The Direct File post-participant survey was offered in both English and Spanish, and Spanish speakers were particularly enthusiastic about responding, with a 26 percent completion rate, compared to an overall completion rate of 13 percent. In addition, participant responses in the IRS Direct File Report reflect that taxpayers who used the multilingual and/or accessibility features of Direct File emphatically appreciated that the product was designed for their needs.