Taxpayers in Alaska will not be a part of a program to directly file federal taxes with the Internal Revenue Service.
In October, the IRS announced a new pilot program where people could directly file their federal taxes with the agency for free, instead of using a third-party tax preparer like TurboTax. At the time, Alaska was listed as a potential state to take advantage of the program, since there are no state income taxes.
However, Alaska was excluded from the list of 12 states eligible for the program announced late last month.
“Although Alaska has no state income tax and was projected to be a possible participating state during development, the 2024 Direct File pilot is not an option for Alaska residents,” IRS officials said in an emailed statement. “The Direct File pilot does not support reporting the Alaska Permanent Fund Dividend for federal income tax reporting purposes.”
An IRS spokesman declined to answer further questions on Alaska’s exclusion from the pilot program.
As Alaskans start to receive their W-2s and other tax forms, the IRS will start processing federal tax returns on Jan. 29. The deadline to file federal taxes is Monday, April 15.
Wesley Early covers Anchorage life and city politics for Alaska Public Media. Reach him at wearly@alaskapublic.org and follow him on X at @wesley_early. Read more about Wesley here.
