GOP state offi­cials call on IRS to ter­mi­nate free tax-fil­ing pilot pro­gram

Near­ly two dozen state offi­cials are call­ing for the Biden admin­is­tra­tion to ter­mi­nate a new free tax-fil­ing pro­gram by the IRS.
Indi­ana State Trea­sur­er Daniel Elliott led a let­ter to Trea­sury Sec­re­tary Janet Yellen and oth­ers from 21 state Repub­li­can finan­cial offi­cers argu­ing against the pilot pro­gram. They argued the IRS Direct File pro­gram is “a solu­tion in search of a prob­lem” and specif­i­cal­ly raised con­cerns about its effects on state tax returns.
The group argued the Direct File pro­gram “will cre­ate chal­lenges for tax­pay­ers and state trea­sur­ers and the costs of Direct File far out­weigh any poten­tial ben­e­fits it may con­fer to tax­pay­ers.”
In the let­ter, the state finan­cial offi­cers con­tend that because the Direct File sys­tem only han­dles fed­er­al tax returns, res­i­dents might be unaware they also have to sep­a­rate­ly file state returns and could miss out on state tax refunds or face penal­ties for not fil­ing at the state lev­el.
“This is sig­nif­i­cant …