Wisconsin residents can file their taxes directly to the IRS for free in 2025

Wisconsinites started the 2025 tax season on Monday with a new tool — free access to software that sends their returns straight to the IRS.

Wisconsin is one of 25 states participating in the Internal Revenue Service’s new Direct File system.

“It’s making what is often a complex or scary process for a lot of Wisconsinites easy,” said David Casey, secretary of the Wisconsin Department of Revenue. “Easy, secure, free.”

Casey’s department runs the state filing software WisTax, which links with the IRS Direct File website.

“There’s a prompt that’ll ask you, would you like to file your state taxes?” said Jennifer Bacon, director of communications for the department. “And you just click a button, and because you’ve already entered Wisconsin information, it will automatically take you to WisTax.”

The website also tells you which tax credits you’re eligible for and lets you choose between them, Casey explained.

“That’s really important, because too often when people file returns, they don’t know what they’re eligible for, so they may miss something,” he said.

In 2021, 20 percent of eligible Wisconsinites didn’t claim the Earned Income Tax Credit, a tax break for people with low-to-moderate incomes.

Not all taxpayers are eligible for Direct File. Those who are ineligible include people earning over $200,000 a year and those claiming itemized deductions. Filers can check their eligibility at directfile.irs.gov.

One opponent of the program has been for-profit tax filing software provider TurboTax and its parent company Intuit. Investigative news outlet ProPublica reported in 2019 that the company spent years lobbying Congress against creating a free, direct tax filing service.

Intuit’s stock plunged in June after the IRS announced it was making Direct File — previously a pilot program — permanent in several participating states. It fell again in November after The Washington Post reported on Elon Musk’s interest in making a tax filing app as part of his federal Department of Government Efficiency, also known as DOGE.

“We have received quite a few WisTax returns through Direct File, and they have been seamless,” she said. “And we’re hearing from people that it’s really easy to use. Really user-friendly.”