This article was reprinted with permission from .听
罢丑别听聽parts company with the web presences of other聽 agencies in the commonwealth: It doesn鈥檛 offer its own tools to help you complete your primary task there 鈥� taxes.
While you can renew a car registration at the聽聽and register an LLC at the聽, Virginia Tax doesn鈥檛 let you file your state income taxes online and instead聽.
That鈥檚 not because Virginia Tax hasn鈥檛 developed its own filing app. It鈥檚 because 15 years ago, the department shelved the iFile app that had already drawn聽.
In 2010, then-Gov. Bob McDonnell, a Republican, signed聽聽patroned by Del. Kathy Byron, R-Lynchburg, which had Virginia retire iFile and cede tax preparation to private providers that would offer聽 apps for free to lower-income residents 鈥� the same proposition the Internal Revenue Service聽.
That removed a free option from higher-income taxpayers, with Intuit鈥檚 market-leading TurboTax charging a state tax-prep fee that now stands at $64, despite the relative simplicity of the state鈥檚 Form 760. Most other commercial tax-prep services charge for state filing, although Cash App Taxes does not.
鈥淲e should not have to pay a for-profit company in order to file our taxes easily,鈥� Del. Kathy Tran, D-Fairfax, said after reviewing a constituent鈥檚 complaints.
But even taxpayers eligible to use Free File, historically around 70% of total users, have largely ignored it. In 2024, Virginia Tax processed 89,064 Free File individual returns 鈥� far fewer than the聽4,128,006 total individual returns received electronically or the 446,782 filed on paper.
Electronic returns cost 10 cents each to process and paper ones cost $5.96 each, Heather Cooper, Virginia Tax鈥檚 director of communications and training, confirmed in an email.
At the federal level, the IRS has downgraded from the Free File partnership. Pro Publica鈥檚 coverage of how Intuit had聽聽led to the IRS altering its Free File arrangement in 2019 to聽, and the IRS has now聽.
Vanessa Williamson, senior fellow at the聽, called its popularity among users 鈥渞emarkable鈥� 鈥� 74% of 440 respondents in a聽聽said they preferred it over other filing methods.
鈥淭he success of Direct File should be a model for the states,鈥� she said.
Virginia has not been among the 25 states supporting Direct File, but it may now be ready to reverse its own Free File decision 鈥� even as the Trump administration appears intent on聽.
Two years after Tran introduced聽聽that died in committee, the delegate聽 sponsored聽聽this year that would also have Virginia join Direct File. That one, with a聽聽sponsored by Sen. Jeremy McPike, D-Prince William, passed the General Assembly only to meet a veto from Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin.
Youngkin鈥檚 veto message cited 鈥渦ncertainty鈥� about Direct File鈥檚 fate and also noted another recent advance towards returning Virginia to online filing:聽 requiring Virginia Tax鈥檚 next revenue-management system to support 鈥渁n electronic filing system for individual income tax that can be used by all Virginians.鈥�
Tran suggested that wording in the budget could be enough to accomplish her bill鈥檚 goal, depending on how Virginia Tax interprets it.
That interpretation could rely on who the next governor appoints to her cabinet, but the two presumptive candidates, former Democratic congresswoman Abigail Spanberger and Republican Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle Winsome-Sears, have not spoken out on this issue. A query to each campaign鈥檚 press office went unanswered.
Intuit questioned the need for a public tax-prep app.
鈥淔ree filing options for state tax preparation are already available today,鈥澛� spokesperson Tania Mercado said. 鈥淔iling federal and state taxes together and linking tax returns allows taxpayers to save time, ensure accuracy, improve privacy and data protection, and reduce the chances of tax refund fraud.鈥�
Opponents of direct filing also question whether public-sector developers would have the same motivations as private-sector counterparts.
鈥淎dditionally, the private sector would have an incentive to find as much savings as possible for taxpayers when preparing their taxes,鈥� Americans for Tax Reform said in聽聽commending Virginia joining Free File.
Tran鈥檚 reply: Nobody is banning commercial tax apps.
鈥淗aving a direct free file way for you to pay your taxes is not a requirement for you to use that option,鈥� Tran said. 鈥淭hat is a decision you as a taxpayer get to make.鈥�
In Maryland, the free聽聽tax-prep app the state has offered since 2001 drew relatively few users this year: 39,717 returns out of more than 2.6 million submitted electronically, a little over half of the 76,918 paper returns handled as of early May, officials said.
Almost 6,000 more returns came in via Maryland鈥檚 Direct File portal using an interface developed by Code for America,聽 Robyne McCullough, media relations director at the Maryland comptroller鈥檚 office, said by email. When Maryland launched that partnership, officials estimated that聽聽to use Direct File.
But Maryland taxpayers have that choice, while Virginians do not.
鈥淭he thing preventing us from having a high-quality, free public tax preparation system is not technology or logistics, it鈥檚 just politics,鈥� said Williamson, the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center fellow.
