October 09, 2024

Warren, Wyden, Porter Call on Treasury, IRS to Improve Direct File by Ending Reliance on ID.me, Making Identity Verification Secure and Accessible

“[Taxpayers] should not be forced to jump through extra, onerous, hoops that private tax prep companies are not required to meet.”

Text of Letter (PDF)

Boston, MA – U.S. Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), a member of the Senate Finance Committee, Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), Chair of the Senate Finance Committee, and Representative Katie Porter (D-Calif.) wrote to the Department of the Treasury (Treasury) and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) urging the agencies to make the Direct File tax filing program more accessible by ending reliance on ID.me, which uses a flawed facial recognition software.

When Direct File, the first free, public, electronic federal tax filing tool in U.S. history, launched, the IRS announced that taxpayers would need to submit to identity verification through ID.me because it met the IRS’ desired level of strictness, “Identity Assurance Level 2” (IAL 2). IAL 2 is the middle of three “levels” of national identity verification standards, and requires an applicant’s face to be compared to a government ID using facial recognition software or by a human. But the facial recognition technology used by ID.me has been shown to be less accurate when dealing with vulnerable groups, including individuals of color, and has been linked to wrongful arrests of black men. This heightened identity verification is required for the Direct File service and not for commercial tax preparation services. 

“Requiring them to use ID.me is creating yet another needless barrier to exactly these taxpayers who need Direct File most to claim tax benefits, as it has been with other government benefits,” wrote the lawmakers. 

Private tax preparation companies are not judged against IAL standards but operate at the equivalent of a level 1 by just having users simply assert their identity.  The private tax preparation companies have also egregiously misused private taxpayer information, and Direct File allows taxpayers the option to not give their money and personal information to private companies when filing their taxes. Login.gov, a government-run identity verification alternative, is expected to be compliant with existing IAL 2 standards, making it available for the 2025 tax season. 

The IRS’ current approach to security does not make sense. 

“If the threat posed by identity thieves and fraudsters is severe enough to warrant requiring taxpayers to submit to identity verification…then the IRS should require such security protections, across the board, regardless of whether taxpayers use Direct File, commercial services like TurboTax and H&R Block…,” the lawmakers continued. “Alternatively, if the threat posed by identity thieves is not serious enough for the IRS to require commercial tax prep companies to implement burdensome identity verification, then taxpayers using Direct File should not be required to do so either.” 

The 2024 Direct File pilot was a clear and resounding success, helping taxpayers claim over $90 million in tax refunds and saving taxpayers $5.6 million in estimated filing fees. The IRS recently announced that it will expand service to 24 states and over 30 million taxpayers for the 2025 tax season. In order to keep Direct File serving taxpayers effectively, the lawmakers requested answers from the Treasury and the IRS about the impact of ID.me on taxpayers’ access to Direct File and potential alternatives to ID.me by October 21, 2024. 

Senator Warren has been at the forefront of holding tax prep firms and Big Tech accountable for their behavior, and pushed for an effective IRS direct free file program:

  • In June 2023, Senators Warren and Carper and Representatives Sherman, Porter, and Beyer led a coalition of 99 Democratic lawmakers in sending a letter to Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Commissioner Daniel Werfel and Deputy Treasury Secretary Adewale Adeyemo, applauding the IRS’ announcement of a pilot  of a free tax filing tool next year. 
  • In April 2023, Senators Warren and Carper led their colleagues in sending a letter to IRS Commissioner Daniel Werfel urging the agency to simplify the tax process and broaden access to free e-filing options.
  • In April 2023, at a hearing of the Senate Finance Committee, Senator Warren questioned Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Commissioner Daniel Werfel about the IRS’s failed Free-File partnership with private tax preparation software companies and called on the agency to implement a direct E-File program that will be truly free and easy for millions of Americans. 
    • Commission Werfel agreed with Senator Warren that the gap between the 70% of taxpayers that Free File is supposed to serve and the 2% it actually does is “massive.”  When Senator Warren pointed out that tax prep companies are instead pushing alternative services that should be free, are marketed as free, but are not, Commissioner Werfel also agreed that “the whole process needs to be improved,” that taxpayer rights have been violated, and the IRS has an obligation to make “the tax system easier for taxpayers to navigate.”
  • In March 2023, Senators Warren and King wrote a letter with 19 other senators to the Internal Revenue Service and Secretary Yellen expressing strong support for Secretary Yellen’s directive for the IRS not to raise audit rates for small businesses or households making under $400,000 annually. 
  • In December 2022, Senators Warren and Wyden, along with Representatives Porter and Sherman sent letters to tax preparation companies H&R Block, TaxAct, and TaxSlayer, plus big tech firms Meta, and Google, amid reports that the tax preparation companies have been secretly transmitting individual taxpayers’ sensitive financial information to Meta and Google.
  • In July 2022, Senator Warren led 22 of her colleagues in introducing the Tax Filing Simplification Act of 2022 to simplify the tax filing process for millions of Americans by lowering costs, eliminating red tape for all taxpayers, and saving them hours and hundreds of dollars. 
  • During an exchange of the United States Senate Finance Committee in June 2022, U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen agreed with Senator Warren on the need to create a free tax filing system that actually works for Americans.

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