> so a direct file that handled state returns would take several years and hundreds of staff to develop and maintain. The way to extend this, if the federal go

> so a direct file that handled state returns would take several years and hundreds of staff to develop and maintain. The way to extend this, if the federal government wanted to push it, would be to define a standard export format from IRS DirectFile, containing all the information in it... ... then make some federal money contingent on states implementing a filing system with an import function (for the shared data). Nice clean interface, and still states' choices on if they want to support.