Section II: Technology and Taxpayer Experience

The Report to Congress said, “Developing Direct File would require the IRS to develop new

skills and processes to operate, maintain, and improve complex technological products.” ¹¹

55% of taxpayers expected Direct File to offer a comparable experience to other tax

preparation software, and 31% expected it to be either “somewhat easier” or “much easier” to

use. Taxpayers expected that Direct File would be accurate and secure. This section explores

whether the IRS was able to meet these taxpayer expectations.

For the primary quantitative measure of taxpayer opinions of Direct File, the IRS selected the

Net Promoter Score ^SM (NPS) customer sentiment metric. ¹² The Touchpoints survey asked

taxpayers who used Direct File, “On a scale from 0 to 10, how likely are you to recommend

Direct File to a friend or family member?” The NPS methodology sorts responses into three

categories: respondents who rate Direct File a 9 or a 10 are “promoters,” ratings of 7 or 8 are

“passives,” and 6 or lower are “detractors.” The percentage of detractors is subtracted from

the percentage of promoters (passives are ignored), giving a score ranging from -100 to +100.

Direct File has a NPS of +74, as shown in Figure 7. If compared to benchmark scores from

financial services companies, Direct File would lead in eight of nine categories. ¹³

Figure 7. Direct File’s Net Promoter Score