Extension filers with a 2025 federal return still outstanding have a firm cutoff in mid-October, and the Internal Revenue Service says the no-cost preparation option many assume disappeared after the spring rush is still open. Anyone whose adjusted gross income last year fell at or below $89,000 can still use guided software to finish a return without paying a preparer. That eligibility line, and the deadline sitting behind it, matter most to the extension filers who have not started yet.
IRS Free File Runs Through October 15
The Internal Revenue Service confirmed the timeline in an Aug. 26, 2026 release, IRS reminder: Extension filers can use IRS Free File this summer, urging taxpayers who requested Form 4868 extensions to file “as soon as possible, rather than waiting until the Oct. 15 deadline.” The release states plainly that IRS Free File remains available through Oct. 15, 2026, and offers free guided tax preparation for taxpayers with an adjusted gross income of $89,000 or less in 2025. The agency’s stated reason for pushing early filing is practical rather than technical: filing over the summer avoids the fall processing crunch and leaves more time to fix errors or arrange payments before the window closes.
The same release carries a warning the IRS repeats every extension season: an extension gives taxpayers more time to file but not more time to pay. Anyone who still owes a 2025 balance was required to pay it by the original spring deadline, and the agency says filers who have not settled up should send whatever they can now, since penalties and interest continue accruing on the unpaid amount until it is paid in full.
Inside the kit: A notice decoder, the refund-trace steps for Form 3911, a refund status tracker spreadsheet and the 3-year refund deadline. Open The IRS Refund Recovery Kit.
Who Falls Under the $89,000 Ceiling
The guided-software side of Free File runs through a partnership between the IRS and the Free File Alliance, a coalition of private tax-preparation companies that agree to prepare and e-file a federal return at no charge for taxpayers under the income cap. The IRS’s own E-file: Do your taxes for free page sets the bar at $89,000 or less in adjusted gross income for the 2025 tax year, the same figure the August release used. Filers have to pick a participating company through the IRS site rather than going straight to a preparer’s own homepage; going around the IRS portal forfeits the free offer entirely. Some partners also prepare a state return at no cost, though state coverage varies by company and by state of residence.
Above that income line, a partner company can decline to prepare a return for free or can charge for it, since each company layers its own eligibility rules, such as age brackets or state residency, on top of the IRS ceiling. The $89,000 figure caps the no-cost guided option; it does not lock higher earners out of filing electronically altogether.
To actually sign and submit a return through Free File, a taxpayer needs either last year’s adjusted gross income or last year’s Self-Select PIN to verify identity electronically, a detail the same IRS page walks through for anyone who has not e-filed before. First-time filers can enter “$0” as a stand-in for a prior-year figure they never had.
Above the Line: Free File Fillable Forms
Taxpayers over the $89,000 threshold still have a federal option with no income limit at all: Free File Fillable Forms. The IRS describes the tool on its Free File Fillable Forms page as open for the current season, built for taxpayers “comfortable preparing their own taxes using IRS forms and instructions.” The trade-off is real: fillable forms perform limited calculations, offer no state filing, and skip the interview-style prompts built into the income-capped software. A filer needs a 10-digit U.S. cell phone number to use the system, and the same page notes that anyone without one who also qualifies on income can switch to the guided software instead.
The two tools also diverge after filing. A taxpayer who used the guided software can prepare an amended return with the same free service later on; Fillable Forms currently has no ability to prepare or file an amended return at all, so a correction has to go through a different process entirely.
Consumer Protections Built Into the Program
The E-file: Do your taxes for free page also spells out what a Free File Alliance partner is barred from doing to a qualifying filer. Member companies may not sell add-ons such as a refund anticipation loan, audit protection, or other bank products to someone using the free program, and they are barred from confusing website designs meant to steer users toward a paid product. Guided software also carries a calculation guarantee: if an error in the software itself causes a filer to owe IRS penalties or interest, the partner company is responsible for paying them, not the taxpayer.
The IRS reviews each participating company’s software for compliance with those rules before the season opens, a check the agency runs jointly with the Free File Alliance rather than leaving to the companies alone.
Filing Late Still Means Paying On Time
For extension filers expecting a refund rather than a bill, the IRS points to the same fix it recommends every filing season: electronic filing paired with direct deposit. The agency’s direct-deposit page says eight out of ten taxpayers already choose that route, and more than nine out of ten refunds arrive in under 21 days once a return is filed electronically. The same page notes that a paper refund check costs the government more than a dollar to issue, against roughly a dime for each direct deposit, and that a refund can be split across up to three accounts, including an IRA, using Form 8888.
None of that changes the payment math for anyone who owes. The Oct. 15 date closes the filing window for 2025 extension returns; it does not open any new room on the payment side, a distinction the IRS spelled out in the same August release that set the deadline in the first place.
Filing Late and Waiting Longer
Filing after the summer rush means standing behind everyone who filed months earlier, and an extension filer expecting a refund often watches the wait stretch past the 21-day window the IRS cites for electronic returns. What the deadline and the free-filing rules above do not cover is what happens once a return is already in the system: a stalled refund, a notice that arrives instead of a check, or a bank that rejects a direct deposit outright. Those problems come with their own paperwork and their own timeline, separate from the Oct. 15 cutoff.
The IRS Refund Recovery Kit is a 13-page kit built around a notice decoder and the refund-trace steps for Form 3911, for filers trying to work out what a stalled refund or an unexpected notice actually means.
See the notice decoder and refund-trace steps in The IRS Refund Recovery Kit.
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