Tax Benefits
The Challenge
Filing a tax return is often costly and complicated, and that’s hurting families all across the country.
As much as $15 billion in federal tax benefits go unclaimed every year. Ultimately, this is the result of a status quo that requires millions of Americans to spend time and money they don’t have to fulfill the prerequisite for receiving benefits: filing a tax return. Tax benefits are some of the largest, most effective anti-poverty tools in the United States, but under our current system, too many people miss out on the support they need.
By expanding access to free, high-quality tax filing services and simplifying the tax filing process, we can help more people get and keep the tax benefits they’re owed.
What’s unique about benefits delivered via the tax code? Unlike most other public benefits, the tax system provides cash to families via tax credits and stimulus payments —with no strings attached. Money that individuals and families decide how to spend for themselves is one of the best ways to empower people toward financial stability. Cash support helps people provide for their basic needs, find and keep living wage jobs, and handle emergencies as they arise.
The opportunity
Closing the tax benefits coverage gap
Through the mindful use of technology, Code for America works to ensure that all people who are eligible for benefits distributed through the tax system can actually receive them. We believe that government has a responsibility to provide free and easy tax filing services and proactively work to ensure people receive the money they are owed. To advance that goal, we build products that show what’s possible and support government agencies to deliver high quality tax preparation services.
What is the tax benefits coverage gap? Some people who are eligible for certain tax benefits—usually because their household income falls below a certain threshold—don’t file a tax return and thus don’t receive their benefits. Others file but don’t claim benefits they are eligible for. It is estimated that these households would collectively receive as much as $15 billion in federal tax benefits every year. These households—who are eligible for tax benefits but don’t receive them—fall into the tax benefits coverage gap.
Our impact
Code for America works with governments to make tax filing easy, free, and mostly automatic.
Since 2020, through our partnership with the IRS’s Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) program, our team has worked to revolutionize access to tax filing for people who need hands-on assistance by running GetYourRefund, the first scalable platform to provide virtual access to VITA services.
From 2021-2022, we built and ran GetCTC, a free, easy tax filing tool that allowed 200,000 families to claim key tax benefits like the stimulus and expanded Child Tax Credit during the COVID-19 pandemic. This helped spark a national movement to use government technology to advance access to tax benefits for families with low income—a movement that ultimately set the foundation for a historic new filing tool: IRS Direct File.
In May 2023, the IRS announced the pilot launch of Direct File, the first free, public, federal online tax filing tool in US history. In support of Direct File, Code for America co-founded the Coalition for Free and Fair Filing to defend, promote, and expand the program. We partnered with the IRS and the states of Arizona, Idaho, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, and North Carolina to run FileYourStateTaxes, a free state filing tool that allowed Direct File users to also file their state tax returns for free.
I had looked at other services, [but] I just wasn’t feeling confident until I stopped and found GetYourRefund.
Does your community-based organization want to help connect tax filers to free, high-quality tax filing services?
Each year, tens of thousands of people use GetYourRefund to save hundreds in filing fees while claiming thousands in tax refunds and credits.
When you partner with us to promote free tax filing services, we can serve tens of thousands more people each year—delivering tens of millions in tax-based benefits and helping ensure families receive the tax benefits they deserve.
Are you a VITA site coordinator interested in partnering with GetYourRefund to offer virtual services?
Code for America partners with trained, IRS-certified volunteers at local community organizations to help ensure more people can access their tax benefits.
Get in touch to learn more about offering virtual VITA in your community.
$1.4 billion
in tax benefits since 2020
726,000
people file tax returns
One in five
people who have filed a tax return using GetYourRefund were first-time filers
Code for America partnered with the IRS VITA program on a pilot for the 2020 tax filing season to make VITA more accessible to more people via GetYourRefund, our virtual VITA program. Clients answer a few simple questions, securely upload relevant documents, and connect remotely with VITA volunteers who can prepare and file returns on clients’ behalf. Since 2020, the tool has helped 345,000 people file their taxes.
In September 2021, Code for America launched GetCTC, a simplified web filing application that facilitated access to the Child Tax Credit and Economic Impact Payments. After running for 10 weeks in fall 2021 and another six months in 2022, GetCTC helped nearly 300,000 households claim an estimated $685 million—an average of $3,500 per return.
In early 2024, the IRS launched the first-ever free public online tax filing product—Direct File—which simplified the process of filing a federal tax return. Code for America partnered with Arizona and New York to build FileYourStateTaxes, a companion product that allowed Direct File taxpayers to seamlessly file their state returns.
For 2025, Direct File expanded to 25 states, with Code for America’s FileYourStateTaxes expanding to Idaho, Maryland, New Jersey, and North Carolina. Users loved it: 98% said they were “satisfied” or “very satisfied”, and 94% preferred this filing method to their previous method. In 2025, the IRS ended the Direct File program, leaving it to states and nonprofits to provide this critical public service.
After years of experience in streamlining the tax filing process, Code for America’s tax benefits team is expanding GetYourRefund to serve more people and offer new services, including developing a new simplified filing tool to close the state tax benefits gap for families with low income.
Based on our learnings from GetCTC and GetYourRefund, Code for America has published hundreds of pages of pioneering research on promoting access to tax benefits for families with low income.
Resources
Stories
Ready to help simplify tax filing?