By SHAANTH NANGUNERI/Oregon Capital Chronicle

The Trump administration has ended the federal government’s offering of a nationwide free e-filing program for federal income taxes for 2026. But state officials say Oregonians can still find similar options both online and in-person.

The Oregon Department of Revenue learned of the move last week through an email from the Internal Revenue Service, according to agency spokesperson Robin Maxey. That announcement came after the revenue department urged taxpayers in August to complete an official national survey seeking to evaluate the efficacy of the Biden-era online tax filing program.

Oregon was one of 25 states to have partnered with the Internal Revenue Service to offer an online pilot allowing taxpayers to directly file their federal income taxes. Around 4,700 Oregonians took advantage of the program this year, and nearly 14,000 participated in Oregon’s own system for direct state income tax filings, known as Direct File Oregon.

In a statement, David Gerstenfeld, director of the Oregon Department of Revenue, said the state’s direct file option will remain available for 2026.

“Oregon still has several options for electronically filing both their federal and state income tax returns for free,” he wrote. “Direct File Oregon can be used in combination with commercial software, a variety of income-based free software programs, and free fillable forms, which is available to every taxpayer regardless of their income level.”

Americans for decades have given billions of dollars to private, for-profit tax preparation companies without a free government program providing an alternative. The IRS has historically partnered with private companies to offer a subsidized filing service for low and middle-income taxpayers with its “Free FIle” program, but reporting from ProPublica in 2022 found that some of those companies tricked customers into paying for free services.

Congress, in response, gave the IRS $15 million to study its options for creating a free system in the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act. By 2023, the agency produced a report that led to the 2024 direct e-filing pilot.

But the GOP’s summer tax and spending law directed IRS officials to report by Oct. 2 on the costs of “enhancing and establishing public-private partnerships,” and the costs of replacing “any direct e-file programs run by the Internal Revenue Service.” A previous version of the GOP’s legislation proposed axing the program altogether.

The U.S. Treasury Department in that recent report claimed that the program had “low overall participation and relatively high costs and burdens on the federal government, compared to other free filing options.” But U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden, an Oregon Democrat and ranking member of the U.S. Senate Committee on Finance, said that President Donald Trump and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent “gutted the team that ran the direct file program, so the outcome of this study was predetermined and the report itself is a sham.”

“I wrote the bill that created Direct File because the existing free options were insufficient and the big tax prep companies had been caught red-handed using deceptive practices to scam taxpayers into overpaying,” Wyden said. “The lesson is, the Trump administration is a threat to any public service that saves Americans time, hassle and money.”

Maxey, the revenue department spokesperson, said in an email that taxpayers who have yet to file their 2024 returns this year can use Direct File Oregon in combination with federal filing options to complete their forms.

The agency cannot recommend specific programs, Maxey said, but it has compiled a list of free tax preparation services as well as approved commercial options such as H&R Block, TaxHawk.com, 1040Now, CashApp and FileYourTaxes.com.

Some free options include:

The American Association of Retired Persons Foundation Tax-Aide program, which provides assistance to anyone free of charge with a focus on low- and middle-income individuals older than 50.
The Volunteer Income Tax Assistance program gives free assistance to people who make less than $60,000 annually, people with disabilities and individuals who speak limited English. The IRS lists locations for these program sites on its webpage.
The Portland-based nonprofit Metropolitan Family Service has a Creating Assets, Savings and Hope program which offers a dozen free volunteer tax sites in the Portland and Eugene metropolitan areas as well as virtual options. The program is geared to low- to moderate-income working families and individuals and provides culturally responsive outreach.
The Oregon Taxpayer Advocate Office also lists an interactive map on the revenue department’s website of free tax preparation sites as of 2024, though it notes those appointments are often filled quickly.

IRS officials previously described the direct e-filing program as a tool that “walks the taxpayer through the complexities of the nation’s tax code.” The system promised accurate estimates of refunds or taxes owed, as well as transparency for how it made calculations.