# The Autofill Act of 2024: What It Means for Your Taxes

The Autofill Act would let you download your tax forms with much of your information already filled in. Right now, when you file taxes, you have to manually enter information like your wages, which your employer already reported to the IRS. This bill would change that by having the IRS create a system where you can download forms like the 1040 that are pre-populated with information the government already has about you—things like your W-2 income and self-employment earnings. You'd get these forms in two versions: one you can print out and complete by hand, and another that works with tax software on your computer.

The bill sets up a timeline for making this happen. By October 31, 2024, the IRS would need to establish the technical standards for how this system works and create a test version. By February 15, 2025, the IRS would launch the actual service on its website where you can securely download your pre-filled forms. The government also has to make wage and self-employment information available quickly—within 15 days of receiving it—so the forms can be current and useful.

Here's the important catch: you're still completely responsible for checking everything on those forms. The bill makes clear that just because information is pre-filled doesn't mean you can skip reviewing it. You have to verify all the details are correct before you file, and you have to acknowledge this responsibility before you can even download the forms. This protects you from accidentally filing incorrect information and protects the government from claims that pre-filled data was wrong.

This change could make tax filing simpler and faster for millions of people, especially those with straightforward tax situations. Instead of hunting through documents to find numbers to enter, you'd start with most of your information already there, needing only to add deductions, credits, or other details the government doesn't know about.

Autofill Act of 2024

Foster, Bill

Autofill Act of 2024 This bill requires the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to establish a program to allow taxpayers to download forms relating to individual income tax returns that are populated with return information reported to the IRS. The IRS must make such return information available not later than 15 days after it receives the information and must make such information available in both a printable document file and in a computer-readable form suitable for use by automated tax preparation software.