In November of 2001, OMB established through its Quicksilver Task Force, 24 e-government initiatives that are part of the President’s Management Agenda. These initiatives were designed to improve Government to Government, Government to Business, and Government to Citizen electronic capabilities. One particular initiative instructed the IRS to provide free online tax return preparation and filing services to individual taxpayers. In accordance with this OMB directive, the IRS began working with the tax software industry to make this a reality. On October 30, 2002, a public-private partnership agreement was officially signed between the IRS and the Free File Alliance, LLC, a group of tax software companies to make free online tax preparation and electronic filing services available to at least 60% of all individual taxpayers (i.e., 78 million). Free File Services are now being offered by the Free File Alliance.

Final Free Online Electronic Tax Filing Agreement - Read about the precedent-setting Agreement between the Government and the tax software industry signed October 30, 2002.

Treasury News Release - Agreement Signed - News Release issued concurrently with signing event - October 30, 2002.