IRS Free File

What this actually is

Free brand-name tax software, provided through the IRS, for filers with adjusted gross income of $89,000 or less. There is also Free File Fillable Forms, which has no income limit at all but gives you no guidance and no state return — it is the paper form on a screen. The critical detail: you must start at IRS.gov/freefile. Going straight to a tax company’s own website does NOT get you the Free File offer, and that is exactly how people who qualify for free filing end up paying. Free File handles the current year only — a prior-year return has to go elsewhere (VITA, above).

Who qualifies, and what trips people up

AGI of $89,000 or less for the guided software; any income for Fillable Forms. Individual partner companies set narrower rules on top of the federal threshold (age, state, military status), so the IRS lookup tool matters. Free state filing is offered by some partners and not others. Form 4868 extends the filing deadline to October 15 but does NOT extend the deadline to pay — tax owed is still due in April.