The Trump administration plans to scrap the #IRS’ free #DirectFile tax system, according to two sources familiar with the decision. @johniadarola.bsky.social breaks it down on @thedamagereport.bsky.social
youtu.be/13CM2TGKb28?...
Elon Musk Can't Stop Making Th...
#DirectFile
Because the rich can afford accountants. It's not THEIR problem. When are people going to wake up and see what his intents REALLY are.
NBC News: #Trump administration plans to end #IRS #DirectFile for #free #TaxFiling, sources say
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/politics-news/trump-administration-plans-end-irs-direct-file-free-tax-filing-sources-rcna201663
Not surprised that Intuit, owner of TurboTax lobbied so hard in the past year plus to kill it and I'm sure they'll kill Free File when they have the chance.
https://prospect.org/power/2025-04-17-intuit-turbotax-wins-battle-against-taxpayers-irs-direct-file/
Intuit, Owner of TurboTax, Wins Battle Against America's Taxpayers
https://prospect.org/power/2025-04-17-intuit-turbotax-wins-battle-against-taxpayers-irs-direct-file/
The #IRS #DirectFile program has saved #taxpayers millions of dollars and made filing quick & convenient. Losing the program at this point would be a travesty. #US taxpayers need to be liberated from the predations of incompetent tax prep companies. Tax prep charges too much and makes too many mistakes.
#DirectFile è un sistema dell'Internal Revenue Service, ente governativo, per consentire la dichiarazione dei redditi elettronica gratuita, lanciato sotto la presidenza di Joe Biden
Direct File ha minacciato i modelli di profitto delle societĂ private di preparazione dei conti fiscali, che addebitano al contribuente medio circa 140 dollari all'anno e hanno speso milioni di dollari per fare lobbying contro l'alternativa pubblica
https://www.newsweek.com/trump-ending-free-irs-tax-filing-program-what-know-2060647
cc @phastidio
So Direct File is basically dead, and I won't be surprised if Free File follows suit. Huge win for Intuit, H&R Block, the rich and powerful and a huge loss for everyone else.
https://apnews.com/article/irs-direct-file-tax-returns-free-trump-4bb0bca02fab9b3d06ae6f45ac67b7ab
RIP for another terrific (and free) Public Service solution initially developed by 18F.
Sadly this was 100% completely expected:
#IRS #DirectFile #IRSDirectFile
https://apnews.com/article/irs-direct-file-tax-returns-free-trump-4bb0bca02fab9b3d06ae6f45ac67b7ab
You shouldn't have to sacrifice your freedom to file your #taxes electronically: https://u.fsf.org/46g #IRS #FreeSoftware #DirectFile #FSF
You shouldn't have to sacrifice your freedom to file your #taxes electronically: https://u.fsf.org/46g #IRS #FreeSoftware #DirectFile #FSF
Buried in this article is the plan to eliminate the #IRS #DirectFile program which has saved #taxpayers millions of dollars and made filing quick & convenient. Losing the program at this point would be a travesty. #US taxpayers need to be liberated from the predations of incompetent tax prep companies. Tax prep charges too much and makes too many mistakes.
The #IRS #DirectFile program should be free as in freedom: https://u.fsf.org/46g #FreeSoftware #UserFreedom #FSF
…Among the marquee websites that #18F employees helped build or revamp are the #IRS’s free tax filing service known as #DirectFile & the National Weather Service’s page, weather.gov.
But since #Trump returned to the Oval Office, 18F has also been targeted by #ElonMusk, the #tech #billionaire whom Trump tasked w/cutting back the government. #Musk wrote last month in a post on his social media platform, X, that “that group has been deleted.”
So in the ad, they complain how complex doing taxes are. At one point, the woman arrives at a recently abandoned office. I can’t think of any part of filing taxes where that would apply other than the attack on DirectFile.
Paying taxes without generating profit for some middleman is woke? Who knew?
Thanks to DOGE, millions of Americans have just lost their ability to file taxes online for free.
Now they must use third party paid services like Turbo Tax.
This is 0% about inefficiency and 100% about ripping you off.
h/t Micah Erfan on Twitter
Despite confusion, IRS' Direct File, free tax program is still available —
"... the IRS has face intense blowback to Direct File from private tax preparation companies that have made billions from charging people to use their software and have spent millions lobbying Congress. The average American typically spends about $140 preparing their returns each year."
https://apnews.com/article/irs-direct-file-musk-18f-6a4dc35a92f9f29c310721af53f58b16
#IRS #tax #taxes #IRSdirectFile #DirectFile #PublicService #musk
The IRS is hiring product managers. Here's your chance to sock it to the tax prep lobby
https://www.usajobs.gov/job/815736500
#ProductManagement #CivicTech #Government #PublicInterestTech #IRS #DirectFIle
More #NJ #NewJersey news: the state joins IRS Direct File!
"More than 1.3 million New Jerseyans will be eligible to use the free online filing tool during the next Filing Season."
https://nj.gov/governor/news/news/562024/approved/20240724a.shtml
The end of May coinciding with the end of a four-day workweek was a pleasant bonus of Memorial Day’s spot on the calendar this year. Another bonus: I had my last client-paid copy for the month filed by 2:09 p.m. Friday.
Patreon readers got one other post, a rant about the woeful UX of a Hilton offer for double points on upcoming hotel stays. That didn’t get published until almost 9 p.m. on Friday–which is still a lot better than the filing frenzy I’ve exhibited in the final minutes of the final days of other months.
5/28/2024: T-Mobile to Buy Regional Carrier UScellular, PCMag
I didn’t notice the name on the credit of the photo of a T-Mobile flag on a golf course that I’d selected from Getty Images to illustrate this post until I copied that metadata to paste into PCMag’s CMS. That’s when I realized that my Georgetown Voice friend Darren Carroll, a seriously talented photographer, had taken that shot during an idle moment at a golf tournament sponsored by the carrier.
Screenshot
5/28/2024: A Lot of Websites Ask You About Cookies. How Should You Answer?, AARP
My editor at AARP asked if I could write an explainer about those dialogs you see on so many pages that suggest, ask, implore or assume that you’re okay with the site–and, in most cases, advertising networks–writing information about your visit to small text files saved on your device. After talking to numerous experts, I continue to think that your best response to those dialogs, should you not want to be tracked by advertisers, is to use a browser like Apple’s Safari, Microsoft’s Edge and Mozilla’s Firefox that will block ad-network trackers by default.
5/29/2024: Verizon Enlists AST SpaceMobile to Kill Off Its US Dead Zones, PCMag
Verizon’s apparent disinterest in using low-Earth-orbit satellites to provide at least emergency-level coverage in dead zones was looking increasingly weird. Then the carrier signed up the same satellite operator as AT&T to provide that backup connectivity, although it seems to be more conservative in its sales pitch than AT&T.
5/30/2024: Android Update Will Let You Fix Dumb Texting Typos (to Other Android Users), PCMag
I’ve yet to get the update to Google’s Messages app that enables this editing of sent RCS messages–assuming the recipients also have the same update installed–so I cannot yet report on how satisfying it might feel to fix a text typo.
5/30/2024: IRS Direct File App to Return for 2025, Welcome Taxpayers in More States, PCMag
This was one bit of news that I didn’t expect to see coming this week, but with the information-security conference I was attending not yielding any obvious breaking news, I jumped on the chance to write this up instead. And to point out to readers that while the IRS may call this rollout of its free tax-prep app “permanent,” you have to expect that voters returning convicted felon Donald Trump to the White House would soon be followed by Trump scrapping this program.
5/31/2024: FCC: It’s Game Over for Affordable Broadband Connectivity Program, PCMag
The official end of the ACP and the $30 monthly discounts on broadband it provided for more than 20 million American households led to my editors asking me to cover this program one more time.
#ACP #AffordableConnectivityProgram #AndroidFeatureDrop #ASTSpaceMobile #cookies #DirectFile #IRS #RCS #satelliteBroadband #TMobile #taxPrepSoftware #textingTypo #trackingCookies #USCellular #UScellular #verizon
From The Washington Post:
"IRS Direct File is here to stay. All 50 states are invited.
The Biden administration hopes to eventually make the free tax filing site an option for most Americans."
#GiftLink = https://wapo.st/3KmYkNR
"Republicans have criticized it as a costly and unnecessary government alternative to private-sector offerings… "
But of course they did 🙄
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