I've been waiting for this shoe to drop:
NEW: Reps. Adrian Smith and Chuck Edwards wrote Trump a letter today urging him to terminate the IRS’s new free tax filing service, otherwise known as Direct File, on “day one” through an executive order.
It’s co-signed by 27 House Republicans. https://t.co/jEsifotrbd
— Benjamin Guggenheim (@ben_guggenheim) December 11, 2024
After years of resistance from tax software companies, the IRS finally introduced Direct File in 2024. It replaced Free File, a partnership with tax prep software companies that had been operating for 20 years. But Intuit had been caught trying to trick eligible taxpayers into paying for extra services, and by 2021 both Intuit and H&R Block had withdrawn from the program. For obvious reasons, none of the tax prep partners had ever been enthusiastic about the program anyway, and it was limited to taxpayers with incomes under $80,000. Because of this, almost no one used Free File.
Direct File stepped into this mess with a very nice, direct-from-the-government tax app that was free with no tricks and served anyone with an income up to $200,000. It was a hit even though it was pretty limited, but the 2025 version is considerably more capable and is being rolled out to more states. It's likely to be even more of a hit.
In other words, it's a rare thing: a really good IT project rolled out at moderate cost and benefiting millions of taxpayers. But the tax prep companies hate it and would love to see it die. Their MAGA minions in Congress are eager to help.
There's no reason to kill Direct File. If you click the tweet and read Adrian Smith's letter to Trump, you'll see that it's just a tired stew of complaints about how we should leave everything to the private sector and not entrust tax prep to Deep State bureaucrats acting as "tax assessor, collector, preparer, and enforcer." All made worse, of course by Joe Biden's history of "wielding the IRS as a tool to silence political opponents and control private citizens" and the IRS's own "long record of abusing its authority to target political opponents."
This is all stale conservative BS, part of their decades-long jihad against the IRS in service of rich donors who obviously want the agency hobbled. None of it is true, but it's sure phrased in a perfect way to appeal to Donald Trump. Will he bite?
De-commercialize tax prep, make it a government service, and pivot tax prep companies toward individual financial advising and benefits assistance.
Your problem is with de-commercialize. Everything needs to have a profit margin, the business of America is business.
Yes. We need to make things more complicated so that more people are forced to turn to the private sector to navigate the complexity they lobby for. Fuck Intuit.
And don't forget the best part. When the private sector sucks even more at doing public work, people still blame the public sector! It's a big ass twofer.
Of course he’ll bite. Policy awfulness is one of his reasons for being on this earth, that and erasing the accomplishments of presidents not named Trump.
Hey, I was going to say that! Only not as eloquently.
Sure sounds like Republicans defunding the police to me
Are you really going to do this for the next many years? Every stupid silly thing that comes from the government will be subject to ridicule and cause exasperation. It’s tedious already! Absolutely no one will notice this app being turned off. The company that developed it will get paid either way. Just let it go…
It’s time to celebrate and cheer on the destruction of this government. Trying to mitigate the damage or find ways to improve the government only works against your long term interests. Life is good! Sit back and relax. There’s nothing you can do about it anyway.
The grift is on.
Yes, close your eyes and think of England.
Republicans are scum, film at 11. Honestly, free filing is a boon to low and mid-low income people with uncomplicated tax returns. There's no damn reason they should have to pay whatever exorbitant fees Intuit or any of their ilk charge to input some numbers into a software program.
In case they are successful, there are still lots of free options.
https://www.irs.gov/filing/irs-free-file-do-your-taxes-for-free
Time to go back to paper tax returns.
Not directly related, but...
When will California require Intuit to electronically file tax returns for free? Or does California just have really good robotics and software to scan paper returns?
Wait.
Don't I remember a time not long ago when the Republican thing was making it so simple to file your taxes you could do it on a postcard? Did I dream that? Make it up?
So someone comes along and, you know, MAKES IT SIMPLE and they're all "TYRANNY!!"?
These f'n people!
Remember Republican claims that if they were in charge we could all file taxes on a single page? I guess they don't like it so much if ordinary people can do it and everyone actually has to file, period.
Making life worse for Americans is one of the few policy goals of the Republican party. Like tax cuts for billionaires, its a uniting force for every GOP member of congress.
This is one of those things Democratic-aligned groups could do a shitload of ads on.