FormFest 2024 Recap: How IRS Direct File Demystified Tax Forms and Built Trust

In the final session of FormFest 2024, attendees heard from the team in charge of IRS Direct File, a project focused on reimagining the tax return process. The panel was directed by the International Revenue Service’s (IRS) Alison Abbot, Alisa Luu, and Suzanne Chapman who all worked together to make tax filing easier, cheaper, and more accessible for U.S. citizens. Natalie Alms, a reporter at Nextgov/FCW, kicked off the panel by introducing the speakers and sharing the project’s significance, noting that 63% of the public’s frustration with dealing with the government is because of taxes. 

Digital Experience

During the presentation, Alms asked panelists to share how the IRS Direct File team approached the challenge of turning paper and PDF tax forms into a user-friendly digital experience. According to Abbot, the organization started with a taxpayer-first approach to understand the challenges associated with tax filing and identify areas for improvement. She noted that from the beginning, they aimed for Direct File to be more than just a digital version of the 1040 or other IRS tax forms; the organization wanted to reimagine the tax filing experience. The goal was to create a process where each taxpayer was only asked questions relevant to their situation, reducing the burden on users. Direct File was developed so that users would start with basic questions and only be prompted with more complex ones if necessary.

Switching to the more technical side of the project, Luu shared that the engineering team built a tax calculation engine called “a fact graph,” which helps Direct File identify which information is needed from a user to file their taxes. The fact graph currently hosts over 2,500 facts and each node in the graph represents a piece of information—or fact—that the IRS collects. The edges between the nodes represent the relationships between each of these facts. Essentially, the fact graph can be thought of as a fancy spreadsheet in which taxpayers enter their information and the spreadsheet performs the logical operations, or math, to facilitate a completed return. All of the nodes and relationships included in the fact graph help Direct File identify what it needs to know, so that taxpayers are only asked relevant questions. In addition to storing all this information, the fact graph is used to define the user interface and the pages a user visits on the website. This approach allows engineers to move quickly by enabling them to build a Direct File screen at the same time that they build in the tax logic. The logic itself is run both on backend servers and in the user’s browser, enabling faster iteration and quicker addition of the tax scope for the pilot. Luu emphasized the importance of engineers and designers working closely together to ensure the technical solution addressed  taxpayers’ problems. The design team created the simplest set of questions and screens for a user while the engineering team found the shortest path in the fact graph for a specific user’s tax return, generating a truly collaborative process. 

Balancing Accuracy, Ease, and Trust

Next, the panelists were asked how they balanced the need for accuray, ease of use, and trustworthiness in Direct File. One way they framed these needs was by considering a Venn diagram with three circles for accuracy, easiness, and brevity, Chapman said. First, they had subject matter experts and tax filers working together with designers, content strategists, and researchers to make sure the tax information in Direct File was accurate, she said. Then, they focused on making the process easy by employing plain language, because users need to understand the words to get accurate and correct information. Lastly, the team looked to make the process brief, recognizing that accuracy and understanding are of little value if the process is too lengthy for individuals to complete. Chapman then highlighted that trust underpins all these areas. She noted that increasing trust and building user confidence are central to the team’s design vision. To achieve this, they have prioritized transparency and provided users with the opportunity to enhance their tax literacy by explaining the rationale behind certain questions and the tax filing process.

Integrating Feedback

The next section of this panel focused on how the team leveraged taxpayer feedback to influence their design choices and make improvements to Direct File. The team emphasized that user research was central to their design process from day one, driven by a feedback loop strategy. They hosted daily huddles that included individuals from user research, data analytics, and customer support who worked together to share insights with one another. This approach of sharing insights early and often made it easier to make tweaks to the Direct File process. For example, by triangulating insights from these three departments, the team discovered that many taxpayers were having their returns rejected due to incorrect adjusted gross income entries. After identifying this problem, the user experience team ran a mid-pilot sprint and realized they could connect an API to Direct File to help taxpayers automatically import their data. Applying user feedback to quickly generate new features and make changes was a core part of the production process for the Direct File team.

Lessons Learned

For those seeking insights from the Direct File project, the team highlighted the importance of dedicating time early on to plan and set the product vision. The team worked collaboratively to build project guidance and set standards for the project like using human-centered design, adopting a mobile-first approach, offering a Spanish-language version, and prioritizing accessibility. They noted that documenting these standards and guidelines in writing was beneficial because it fostered alignment and allowed new team members to quickly get up to speed. They also organized time to meet well before tax season to ensure that the right people would be available to review the data during the launch. Additionally, the team learned that they needed to test Direct File from day one through the pilot’s conclusion and into production. For that reason, they prioritized enabling an internal Direct File demo environment, so the team had access to the latest code 24/7, and non-engineers could look at what was in-progress, test the latest changes, and catch issues early. 

What’s Next

In terms of what’s next for Direct File, the project has been approved to continue, so the team is thinking about how they can expand its scope. They are now working to launch on the first day of tax season, include more user types, and make more people eligible to use Direct File. They have currently doubled the number of states they are partnering with to reach a wider audience of users. While Direct File is not open source, it’s on the team’s roadmap for next year, so they are hopeful that the code will be available soon. Overall, the team hopes to continue to expand their work to bring a tax system that users trust to more U.S. citizens. 

Key Takeaways

• Reimagine the experience. It is important to think beyond digitizing forms themselves to consider how to best digitize and reimagine the user experience. Working across teams and iterating early and frequently with user data can help ensure you are building appropriate solutions to a challenge. 
• Define and record project standards. Writing your project’s guidelines and standards ensures alignment among team members and across organizations. By making sure everyone is in agreement from the beginning, you can ensure that you are centering the needs of users while maintaining team values. 
• Bring engineering and design together. To ensure that you are building a good user experience, it is important to balance technical expertise with knowledge of good user experiences. Maintaining a balanced ratio of engineers to research, content, and design experts helps create good products that are also good for people to use.
• Find the balance between accurate, short, and easy. Products that are accurate, short, and easy will see the highest compliance from users. Accuracy builds trust, easiness ensures people understand what to do, and brevity makes users more likely to complete a task. Communicate early and often with your team to understand which aspects are most important to your team and most helpful for users.