Congressman Peter Roskam (IL-06) on Tuesday introduced legislation to make the IRS Free File program permanent with Congressman Ron Kind (D-WI).

Launched in 2003 as a partnership between the IRS and the Free File Alliance, the Free File program provides approximately 98 million eligible taxpayers with free online individual income tax preparation and electronic tax filing services, according to a press release from Roskam's office.

“The Free File program is a win-win,” Roskam said in a statement. “Not only do middle income families save money on tax preparation each year, but there is no cost to the federal government, and the program has actually saved the IRS hundreds of millions of dollars. This is a common sense solution that helps millions of Americans navigate our cumbersome and confusing tax code.”

The Free File program gives middle income families options for completing and filing their taxes and, "reaffirms an important public private partnership," Rep. Kind said in a statement. “By working together with the private sector to offer online tax preparation, the federal government has saved hundreds of millions of dollars since 2003. Making this program permanent is responsible to the hardworking families who can benefit from it and is fiscally responsible to all taxpayers.”

The Free File Program is a partnership between the IRS and the Free File Alliance, which includes 16 private sector companies that offer some of the best-known and most trusted commercial tax preparation software on the market at no cost to eligible taxpayers. The program is a consumer safety zone, meaning no marketing, cross selling or refund anticipation loans are allowed in the program, according to the release.

To date, Free File has saved taxpayers approximately $1.1 billion by making online and individual income tax preparation available to middle and lower income populations.