The IRS announced that the 2025 tax filing season is scheduled to begin Monday, January 27, and that its Direct File tool — with new features — will be available in 25 states on the same day. (IR 2025-08, 1/10/2025)
IRS Commissioner Danny Werfel told reporters on a press call January 10 that the agency anticipates receiving more than 140 million individual tax returns through the April 15 tax deadline. By the end of the calendar year, the IRS expects to issue over $300 billion in refunds.
“Last year, the average refund was more than $3,100 for many households [and] that refund will be their biggest check of the year,” said Werfel. “Our employees know that, and they realize how important it is to deliver for the nation, and I’m proud that they come through time and again for taxpayers and the tax system.”
This filing season, the IRS will debut several new taxpayer-friendly technological improvements.
Online Account and bots.
First, Online Account for Individuals will alert taxpayers of potential scams and schemes via a banner on the homepage. The banner will also link to a page detailing digital notices, letters, and related correspondence sent from the IRS to the taxpayer.
This will, the IRS hopes, help educate taxpayers on known fraudulent efforts that put their information at risk and assist in differentiating between legitimate IRS communications and scam attempts.
Next, 284 notices will be added to Individual Online Account, including 200 notices that were redesigned and deployed in 2024. The remaining 84 are scheduled to be deployed later this year.
Taxpayers can also access 67 forms on mobile devices like cell phones and tablets, as well as save draft changes to pick up progress later without needing to start over. Multiple spouses can now sign the same form.
Last year, the IRS deployed chat bots to assist taxpayers with limited functions on irs.gov relating to refund statuses and the Child Tax Credit. An IRS official told reporters during a demonstration that the chat bot tool has been expanded with “additional tax topics, and it’s available to all taxpayers” for 24/7 self-service.
“These chat bots use either guided help through choice buttons or an open text box for customized questions,” the official explained as part of a demonstration. “Links in the chat bot will take taxpayers to more helpful information available on irs.gov. The use of natural language processing and understanding to help interpret the input from our taxpayers will help provide the appropriate responses.”
New for the 2025 tax season is a voice bot available in English and Spanish that can provide refund status updates as a supplement to the Where is My Refund? online tool. The IRS first introduced voice bot technology in January 2024, and the agency has been incrementally expanding usage cases since.
To use the voice bot to check the status of a refund, taxpayers need to provide their Social Security number, filing status, and refund amount.
Direct File.
Whereas the pilot program for the IRS’ Direct File tool was limited to 12 states, a narrow scope of users, and began in the middle of tax season, taxpayers can use the agency’s free e-filing method as soon as this season begins. The number of participating states more than doubled to 25 for the program’s first full tax cycle following lessons learned from the pilot.
In response to popular demand, the “enhanced” Direct File will feature a data import tool allowing users to automatically import certain information from their IRS account. For now, taxpayers can import biographical data like name and address; their Identity Protection, or IP, Pin; and some data from their Form W-2.
The IRS’ presentation clarified that not all taxpayers may see the option to import their Form W-2 initially. Some will have the option as soon as early February, and all taxpayers should be able to import by the end of that month.
In addition to other chat bot feature rollouts, Direct File will let taxpayers use a chat bot to determine their eligibility. Live chat assistance will return again this season, the IRS added. For those seeking assistance from a customer service representative, users may opt into additional authentication and verification.
The pilot version of Direct File supported Earned Income Tax Credit and the Credit for Other Dependents. The following credits are also now supported: the Child and Dependent Care Credit; the Premium Tax Credit; the Credit for the Elderly and Disabled; and retirement savings contribution credits.
As far as deductions, the pilot supported deductions for student loan interest and educator expenses. The IRS added support for deductions for Health Savings Accounts.
“We’re all proud to support the nation — not just during filing season, but throughout the year,” Werfel said in closing. “And we will continue making improvements to help taxpayers using the long-term resources provided by Congress, assuming we are adequately funded. Going forward, I’m confident we will keep making progress in transforming our agency and the service we provide to taxpayers.”
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