I 
113TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION 
H. R. 495 
To make the Internal Revenue Service Free File Program permanent. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
FEBRUARY 5, 2013 
Mr. ROSKAM (for himself and Mr. KIND) introduced the following bill; which 
was referred to the Committee on Ways and Means 
A BILL 
To make the Internal Revenue Service Free File Program 
permanent. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Free File Program 
Act of 2013’’. 
SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 
The Congress finds the following: 
(1) The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Free 
File program as established by the IRS pursuant to 
public rulemaking and set forth in the Federal Reg-
ister, Vol. 67, No. 213, Monday, November 4, 2002, 
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pages 67247–67251, and in implementing agree-
ments and governing rules and requirements be-
tween the IRS and the tax software and electronic 
industry in 2002, 2005, and 2009, has been success-
ful and significant in the efforts of the Federal Gov-
ernment to increase the electronic filing of individual 
income tax returns. 
(2) By the end of the current tax return filing 
season around 40,000,000 Federal individual income 
tax returns will have been prepared and filed elec-
tronically for free under the IRS Free File program. 
(3) The IRS Free File program offers Federal 
individual income tax return preparation and elec-
tronic filing services to more than 70 percent of tax-
payers, approximately 98,000,000 taxpayers at the 
end of the current tax filing period, at no cost to the 
taxpayers or to the Federal Government from tax 
software and electronic filing companies partici-
pating in the program, currently 16 companies. 
(4) By the end of the current tax return filing 
season, it is estimated that the IRS Free File pro-
gram will have saved taxpayers approximately 
$1,110,000,000 and will have saved the Federal 
Government hundreds of millions of dollars. 
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(5) Under the IRS Free File program, the IRS 
and the companies participating in the program have 
made substantial improvements to the program to 
provide better products and services to eligible tax-
payers. 
(6) The IRS Free File program must be main-
tained in order to reach and maintain Congress’ goal 
as set forth in the Internal Revenue Service Restruc-
turing and Reform Act of 1998 of having 80 percent 
of all Federal individual income tax returns filed 
electronically. 
(7) The IRS and the participating tax prepara-
tion companies have integrated the IRS Free File 
program with State tax systems to enable taxpayers 
to also file their State tax returns in conjunction 
with their IRS Free File filings. 
(8) Twenty-two States and the District of Co-
lumbia now operate a Free File program patterned 
after the IRS Free File program again at no cost to 
the State taxpayers or the State governments. 
(9) At the end of the current tax return filing 
season, it is estimated that the Free File States will 
have saved hundreds of millions of dollars collec-
tively. 
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SEC. 3. INTERNAL REVENUE SERVICE FREE FILE PRO-
GRAM. 
(a) The Secretary of the Treasury, or his delegate, 
is authorized and directed to continue to implement and 
operate the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Free File pro-
gram as established by the IRS in the public rulemaking 
of November 4, 2002, and subsequent agreements and 
governing rules established pursuant thereto in 2002, 
2005, and 2009. 
(b) The IRS Free File program shall continue to pro-
vide free online individual income tax preparation and 
electronic filing services to lower income, working poor, 
underprivileged, disadvantaged, or underserved popu-
lations that comprise 70 percent of the lowest income tax-
payers. 
(c) The Internal Revenue Service shall continue to 
work cooperatively with the private sector technology in-
dustry through the Free File Alliance in providing free 
individual income tax preparation and electronic filing 
services and shall not compete with the private sector in 
providing these services to taxpayers, nor acquire, develop, 
or deploy enabling systems to duplicate or replace private 
tax preparation services. 
(d) The Secretary of the Treasury, or his delegate, 
may not establish, develop, sponsor, acquire, or make 
available individual income tax preparation software or 
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electronic filing services that are offered under the IRS 
Free File program, except through the IRS Free File pro-
gram, the Internal Revenue Service’s Taxpayer Assistance 
Centers, Tax Counseling for the Elderly, and volunteer in-
come tax assistance (VITA) programs. 
Æ 
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