WASHINGTON — After three years of development, fourteen stakeholder summits, and a budget that the Treasury Department has described only as "appropriate to the scale of the ambition," the Internal Revenue Service this week unveiled the SimpleFiler Initiative: a bold, citizen-first redesign of the federal tax filing experience that reduces the standard return to a clean, uncluttered two-page form.
The two pages do not include the four mandatory schedules.
Or the three supplemental worksheets.
Or the seventeen categories of supporting documentation required to verify the figures entered on the two pages, the four schedules, and the three worksheets.
Or the 400-page Simplified Filing Terminology Glossary, which the IRS has made available as a free download in PDF format, provided users have Adobe Acrobat version 9 or later, which was discontinued in 2013.
"Today marks a new chapter in the relationship between the American taxpayer and their government," said Treasury Secretary Howard Blaine at a launch event held in the IRS National Headquarters atrium, which had been decorated for the occasion with a banner reading "SIMPLE. CLEAR. YOURS." in the IRS's official font. "We have listened. We have acted. And we have delivered a filing experience that respects your time, your intelligence, and your desire to just get this done."
Secretary Blaine then unveiled the two-page form on an easel, to applause.
A reporter from the Associated Press asked how many pages the full filing package was, including all required attachments.
The Secretary said he would have someone follow up.
The Form Itself: A Tour
The SimpleFiler Form 1040-S — the "S" standing for "Simplified," per the glossary, page 3, subsection 1(a), footnote 2 — opens with a friendly greeting from IRS Commissioner Patricia Huang, who writes that "filing your taxes doesn't have to be complicated" above her signature and a small illustration of a sun.
The form then asks for the taxpayer's name, address, Social Security number, and filing status, which occupies the first half of page one and is, genuinely, quite simple.
The second half of page one introduces Line 7, "Total Adjusted Gross Income," which requires figures drawn from Schedule SF-A, "Income Categorization and Source Verification Worksheet," which in turn references Form W-2, Form 1099 in any of its fourteen variants, Form SSA-1099 if applicable, Form 1095-A if the taxpayer used the marketplace, and, for taxpayers with investment income, Schedule SF-B, which the IRS describes in the glossary as "moderately technical."
The glossary's definition of "moderately technical" is four pages long.
Page two of the SimpleFiler form features a large, friendly checkbox labeled "I confirm the above information is accurate to the best of my knowledge," which legal experts note is doing considerable work as a sentence, and a signature line above the reminder that "penalties for inaccurate filing include fines of up to $25,000 and, in cases of willful misrepresentation, criminal prosecution."
Below the signature line, in a font the IRS describes as "approachable," is the sun illustration again.
What 'Simple' Means: A Partial Guide
The 400-page Simplified Filing Terminology Glossary, which the IRS stresses is "a companion resource, not a required document" — though Schedule SF-C, line 14, instructs filers to "refer to Glossary Section 7 before proceeding" — opens with a note from Commissioner Huang explaining that the glossary exists because "language in tax law carries specific technical meaning that may differ from everyday usage."
This is, it must be said, an accurate statement.
The glossary's entry for "simple" spans eleven pages and includes four subcategories: "Simple (Income)," "Simple (Deduction)," "Simple (Trust)," and "Simple (Filing Status)," each of which carries a distinct legal definition. A footnote on page 6 clarifies that none of these definitions should be confused with "Simplified" as used in the form's title, which is defined separately on page 312.
The entry for "you" — as in, "you may deduct" — is three pages and includes a chart.
Dr. Carolyn Marsh, a tax law professor at NYU School of Law, reviewed the glossary at The Daily Procedure's request and described it as "impressively thorough" before noting that it "presupposes a reading level and baseline familiarity with federal tax code that most Americans do not have and should not be expected to have."
Photo: NYU School of Law, via ik.imagekit.io
She was asked whether the glossary made the filing process simpler.
"It makes the form's language more precise," she said. "That's a different thing."
The Instructional Video: An Accessibility Note
To support taxpayers through the new SimpleFiler process, the IRS has produced a comprehensive six-part instructional video series, running approximately four hours in total, which walks filers through each step of the process using animated graphics, a friendly narrator named "Dave," and a recurring metaphor comparing tax filing to "planning a road trip," which several focus group participants reportedly found confusing rather than reassuring.
The video series is available on the IRS website.
In Flash.
Flash was discontinued by Adobe in December 2020 and is no longer supported by any major browser. An IRS spokesperson confirmed the agency is "aware of the compatibility situation" and is "working with its digital infrastructure partners on a migration timeline."
When asked for that timeline, the spokesperson said it was not yet available but that a plain-language summary would be posted to the website once finalized.
The plain-language summary will, the spokesperson confirmed, be accompanied by a glossary.
Taxpayer Reaction
Early public response to the SimpleFiler Initiative has been mixed, which in the context of IRS announcements represents a meaningful improvement over previous rollouts.
On social media, a number of users shared photographs of the two-page form alongside photographs of the full filing package printed in its entirety, which one user measured at 94 pages and described, with apparent sincerity, as "actually not as bad as last year."
Tax preparation companies, for their part, issued statements welcoming the initiative while noting that the complexity of the supporting schedules meant that "professional guidance remains strongly advisable for most filers" — a sentence that contains, if one is being uncharitable, a financial motive.
H&R Block shares rose 3.4 percent on the day of the announcement.
Among actual taxpayers, sentiment was perhaps best captured by Marcus Osei, a 34-year-old graphic designer from Columbus, Ohio, who told The Daily Procedure he had downloaded the SimpleFiler form, reviewed the first page, located the reference to Schedule SF-A, downloaded Schedule SF-A, found the reference to the glossary, downloaded the glossary, and then closed his laptop and called his accountant.
Photo: Columbus, Ohio, via as2.ftcdn.net
"She laughed," Mr. Osei said. "Not unkindly. But she laughed."
What Happens Next
The IRS has confirmed that the SimpleFiler Initiative will be evaluated after its first full filing season, with a formal review process beginning in Q3. That review will assess completion rates, error rates, and taxpayer satisfaction scores, and will be conducted by a newly formed Office of Filing Experience Optimization.
The Office of Filing Experience Optimization is currently hiring. The job listing is 14 pages long and requires applicants to submit, among other materials, a writing sample, three references, and a cover letter in PDF format — not exceeding two pages, the listing specifies, in a font no smaller than 11 points.
The listing does not specify which font.
There is no glossary.
