IRS Direct File team disbanded

<a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;archive.today&#x2F;3vdPN" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;archive.today&#x2F;3vdPN</a>

How does removing an easy tax filing solution improve government efficiency? It seems like a handout to private tax preparers.<p>I&#x27;ve scanned some of the DOGE stuff and the fact that I have seen pretty much no mention or discussion of the big budget items: social security, military, medicare, and medicaid does not make me optimistic that this is going to do anything about government spending...

140,803 taxpayers used it in 2024.<p>&quot;Of the $13.0 million spent on pilot development and implementation, $10.6 million is technology and product development costs and $2.4 million is operational costs (customer service, cloud computing, user authentication, etc.)&quot;<p>&quot;Nearly half of Direct File users reported paying for tax preparation last year, and the Treasury Department estimates that Direct File users saved $5.6 million in tax preparation fees&quot;<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.gao.gov&#x2F;products&#x2F;gao-24-107236" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.gao.gov&#x2F;products&#x2F;gao-24-107236</a><p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.irs.gov&#x2F;pub&#x2F;irs-pdf&#x2F;p5969.pdf" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.irs.gov&#x2F;pub&#x2F;irs-pdf&#x2F;p5969.pdf</a><p>edit: this comment had a much different estimate earlier based on a less specific source

FYI the issue of free tax filing — including opposing TurboTax&#x27;s lobbying efforts to kill it — has been a fairly popular topic on HN, to the tune of thousands of upvotes over the years:<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;hn.algolia.com&#x2F;?dateRange=all&amp;page=0&amp;prefix=false&amp;query=turbotax&amp;sort=byPopularity&amp;type=story" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;hn.algolia.com&#x2F;?dateRange=all&amp;page=0&amp;prefix=false&amp;qu...</a>

To be clear, no indication that the program itself has been cut. I tried to be specific in my title that the team was disbanded, not that it&#x27;s been taken offline.<p>That said, it&#x27;s clear from this tweet that Musk views this program as a bad one. So I&#x27;m definitely concerned a good effort will be lost.

I think it&#x27;s really creepy and sad that this guy uses language like &quot;This group has been deleted&quot; when he&#x27;s talking about people and not rows in a database.

Unlike most here, I&#x27;ve been cautiously optimistic about DOGE. I know, I know... But this seems like an absolute mistake, unless the administration really is planning on eliminating the income tax altogether. Filing income taxes in the US is such an enormous waste of time every year, and direct file seemed like we were finally moving in a better direction... <i>sigh</i>

Hopefully doesn&#x27;t impact eFile&#x2F;Free File Fillable Forms or it&#x27;s back to paper returns to the IRS for me vs HR Block

<a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.warren.senate.gov&#x2F;imo&#x2F;media&#x2F;doc&#x2F;final_-_rm_warren_letter_to_bessent_re_treasury_payment_system.pdf" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.warren.senate.gov&#x2F;imo&#x2F;media&#x2F;doc&#x2F;final_-_rm_warre...</a>

Direct File is still fully functional and supported for use in 25 states this year.<p>Even if it were removed in the near future, as long as it&#x27;s up, you can be confident that your tax info will be handled properly, as it uses the same interface for tax submissions as all the existing third party tax filing software.<p>-- DF engineer

I have to imagine Intuit and HR Block paid millions to get this done. You have to be in a cult to in some way align a simple and free way of filing taxes with &quot;far-left&quot; wokeness.

The actual story is that Musk claims he deleted a group (18F) that assisted the IRS (among others) with the creation of the tax filing program. The group is (was) part of GSA.

Careful with that ax Eugene...

The flagged&#x2F;dead army is out here in full force, but we&#x27;re watching Elon Musk, Garry Tan who owns this website, YC alumni&#x2F;notorious sociopaths like Austen Allred, and associates dismantling the government and effectuating, promoting, calling for, cheering a revolution.