Free tax filing of your 2019 return is now available from the Internal Revenue Service.

IRS spokesperson Diane Fox says you can find the information on their website. “You can go to IRS.gov/freefile and get started on your taxes. Free File does all the hard work for you. Frankly, it makes taxes less taxing in a lot of ways,” Fox says. She says the program is based on your income.

“Anyone who made $69,000 or less last year can use Free File,” she says. “We even have a special offer for active duty military personnel. And we offer one product in Spanish.” Fox says they have a variety of name brand Free File options.
“It’s do it yourself software, but it leads people through, so that people don’t leave money on the table — that they get all the benefits that are available to them for their refund,” according to Fox. “And makes sure that it checks everything for them before they electronically file.”

Fox says there is added benefit to going through the IRS site to get the Free File software. “You end up with the guardrails that we have in place for this program to make sure that you are getting the Free File program that has some protections for you,” she says. “In fact, we even have some of those protections listed on our website — so you can readily see what to expect when you are using the program.”

Fox says around 22,000 people in Iowa used Free File last year. She says that is well below the number of people who are eligible to use the program.