Insights from the First Year of FileYourStateTaxes

In 2024, FileYourStateTaxes—Code for America’s new integrated state tax e-filing tool—allowed taxpayers in Arizona and New York to file their state tax returns for free after completing their federal tax return with IRS Direct File, a historic new tool that allowed eligible taxpayers to e-file their federal returns for free. Overall, taxpayers loved the experience, with 96% reporting being satisfied or very satisfied with FileYourStateTaxes. 

Our Experience Team—made up of experts in Qualitative Research, Quantitative Research, Design, and Client Success—spent months learning from FileYourStateTaxes clients to identify opportunities to improve our product and to generate shared learnings for other states considering integration with Direct File.  We sent taxpayers a short survey after they filed their taxes with us, invited them to participate in interviews about their experience, and analyzed the questions they asked via chat support. 

We learned a lot about how to enhance and support the taxpayer experience, and these learnings are helping us make improvements to FileYourStateTaxes for filing season 2025.

Overall, these improvements aim to reduce fears associated with tax filing. These include: a fear of getting in trouble with the tax agency if they make a mistake, a fear of owing money in fines, and a fear of not maximizing their refund amount. 

Here are our top five learnings—and some tips—about how to help taxpayers feel confident and safe while completing their taxes. 

Use plain language 

We wrote all TY23 tax questions in plain language and tested them with taxpayers prior to the tax season. We also simplified the English text to improve the Spanish translations, a process called transcreation. Thanks to this effort, taxpayers easily understood most questions

Plain language makes tax questions accessible. When taxpayers understand the questions, it reduces fear and anxiety associated with filing and improves the accuracy of their return. 

Tax questions are filled with jargon, and you may not always be able to re-write those terms. Invite taxpayers to provide feedback on your content to identify jargon or other tax terms that need more explanation. We used clickable reveals to offer quick clarifications on tax terms that participants flagged during feedback sessions. (A reveal is a header that can be clicked and expanded to show the taxpayer brief, helpful information associated on the page.)

 For example, “married filing separately” confused taxpayers, so we provided a reveal for them to learn more. Here are a few tips for simplifying language::

• Use active voice and short sentences.
• Avoid jargon. If you can’t,  provide help text written in plain language to explain the jargon. 
• Write content at a fifth-grade level. Use tools like the Hemingway app to check reading level. 

Taxpayer quote: “Honestly, just making it accessible to more people. Putting definitions for certain niche terminology would be helpful as well.” -NY taxpayer response to “How could we improve FileYourStateTaxes next year?” on the post-submission survey

Help taxpayers understand what comes next

People are more likely to see a process through to the end if they can clearly see the steps they have to take to get there. Clear expectations help minimize the anxiety taxpayers may experience when filing their taxes. This information is particularly useful when a taxpayer is:

• Making sure this tool is right for them:  What does the process entail? 
• Starting their tax return: What documents or forms will they need to gather in advance? How long should they anticipate working on their return? How does this state filing tool work with federal filing tools? 
• Transferring their data from Direct File—the federal filing tool—to FileYourStateTaxes—the state filing tool: When is their data ready to transfer? How long will it take? If it’s not ready, how will they know when it is ready? If it’s not ready, what can they do in the meantime?
• Submitting their tax return: How can they check the status? Who should they contact if they need to amend their return? What should they do if their return gets rejected?

When mapping out the tax filing process for clients, here are a few things that might help:

• Provide “what you’ll need” and “who is eligible” information on the homepage.
• Use a checklist or progress bar to help taxpayers understand where they are in the process, convey a sense of momentum, and understand what’s left. 
• Use historical data to provide an estimate of length when possible. 
• Give taxpayers information on what they can do if they have to wait for their federal return to be accepted, such as check their spam folder or come back in 20 minutes and reload the page. 

Provide review opportunities throughout the experience to build taxpayer trust

Taxpayer appetite for review and detail varies greatly: Some want to see everything, while others want to see just enough to move forward. Finding the right balance is critically important. Showing taxpayers too little may confuse or cause them to lose trust in the product. Showing taxpayers too much can increase taxpayer burden, causing them to abandon your product or get stuck without finishing.

Allowing taxpayers to self-serve information is one way to cater to various taxpayer needs. For example, provide help text or reveals for people who want to learn more about credits or tax situations, and show high-level information with an option to click in to see more detail. 

In 2025, we are enhancing our review functionality. We’ll provide review opportunities after each section of a return, including relevant information taxpayers transferred from their federal return (like state-specific boxes on their W2s) and responses to state-specific questions. 

Progressive reviews help taxpayers catch errors as they work, break down the review into manageable tasks, and increase taxpayers’ confidence and trust in the final amount owed or refunded. Here are a few ways to build taxpayer trust in the review process:

• Offer a review after each section to break-up the tedious task of reviewing at the end. 
• Give the option to review at the end and allow taxpayers to go back and edit the sections.
• Because appetite varies, show high-level information with an option to expand to view more detail. 

Provide empathetic client support

We offered live chat support, and taxpayers contacted us with questions not only about FileYourStateTaxes, but also about Direct File, ID.me, and state payment portals. Our team developed templated responses to share with these clients, gently guiding them to the Direct File support team or to a website with the information they needed. 

As the filing deadline approached, our responses acknowledged taxpayers’ worries about potential late fees and provided assurance. These responses helped de-escalate taxpayer fears, especially near April 15. When thinking about how to make client support empathetic, here are some ways to start:

• To the extent possible, be prepared to guide taxpayers to other parts of the filing process, like Direct File or state payment portals. 
• Offer reassuring guidance in a calm, empathetic tone, especially during high-stress moments, like near filing deadlines. 

Improving FileYourStateTaxes with our research

We believe taxes can be easy, accessible, and human-centered. Our research and design efforts continuously seek to minimize fear and increase confidence and trust in the tax filing process so all people can benefit from free, direct tax filing. We’re excited for 2025, when we can evaluate the improvements we’re making now and continue learning about how to meet the needs of taxpayers.