The Trump administration plans to eliminate the IRS’ Direct File program, an electronic system for filing tax returns directly to the agency for free, according to two people familiar with the decision.
The program developed during Joe Biden’s presidency was credited by users with making tax filing easy, fast and economical.
But Republican lawmakers and commercial tax preparation companies complained it was a waste of taxpayer money because free filing programs already exist, although they are hard to use.
So basically, he wants to ensure there’s no other way we can file our taxes without him being paid for it…
If it looks like a grift, acts like a grift, and smells like a grift,
It’s probably Trump, in a diaper, grifting.
More criminalizing of the poor. Off to the camps with you!
If we actually cared about government waste in the US, we would go after the insurance and tax prep companies. Fucking leaches on society. They only exist to siphon money from people.
How much money has H&R Block put in trump’s pocket?
No surprise from a guy who was convicted of tax fraud.
I’m sure he’s gonna start blaming it for his tax issues soon
Had to be a difficult choice for the administration.
Keep the system that makes it easy for people to give you their tax dollars to steal vs. make it more difficult for them to fork over the cash, but you get to charge them to do it.
For fucks sake you cunts! Direct File is the best thing ever.
What’s great about this is nothing. I tried to use it last week and the site was down already. It said “for maintenance” but for 3 straight days at the peak of tax season?
Sorry to hear that. From what I’ve heard, your experience is not typical. The experience has been flawless for me for the second year in a row.
I wonder if there are any more reliable statistics regarding the reliability of the website. From others I’ve spoken to who have used it, they also had a pretty good experience. The only problems in the past is that not every state was supported. Even now, only 27 states can file using the IRS direct file system, while, last year, it was five states.
And my experience, I lived in one of the originally supported states for both years, so that might explain why my experience was much smoother.
I think it may have to do with the implementation in your state in particular. Or maybe the site was just overloaded on those days. I don’t know.
What I do know is that, even in years past, when I have used tax preparation software, it was never so simple or easy as the IRS direct file system. It’s simple, to the point, and I was able to do all of my taxes for the year in about 20 minutes . The only real problem I had was fiddling around with the ID.me verification bullshit. After that, it was very smooth.
Damn Biden for not being good at advertising his successes. I learned that this exists from the news that is about to be closed down.
At the time, it only just started. Last year, it only worked in five states. While it is because of Biden that it is so good and it works in so many places now, well don’t expect Trump to admit any of that.
But you bring up a good point: progressive aren’t very good at publishing their successes because, I suppose, progressives don’t like to brag. Fascists, on the other hand, must constantly repeat the lie in order for everyone to believe it.
Fair enough! I wish I’d gotten to see it in action, but I guess it’s on me for procrastinating
Worked great for me, but I did it in March. Saved me hundreds and it was less work for me than gathering records and getting them to HRBlock was in 2024. But yeah, discontinue an already developed program while spending a ghastly amount of money on a military parade honoring a felon traitor.
It’ll still be free for me because I’m not filing shit next year
I’m just going to see how long I can go without actually filing, maybe the country will completely collapse first.
I’m far from rich and i had to pay $250. To have my taxes done by an accountant. I could not figure out how to do what I needed to do with the free tax software.
It’s so over complicated.
If you’re using the standard deduction, you’re wasting money by not just doing it yourself. Takes like 30 min.
No, I have business expenses that need to be calculated. The service I used in the past changed their layout and I could not find where to enter business expenses and they never responded to my request for help.
So, I started over and eventually found where to enter the expenses, but I was not sure I was doing it right and then the site said I was reporting a loss for the year, which was not correct, so I just gave up.
There just needs to be a "How much were your business expenses and how much did you earn?
Do you have a bunch of extra stuff that complicates it? My mom only needed help finding where to access it and filed hers and her fiance’s no problem and she’s the type that I have to remind how to use the remote shes been using for over a year.
I’ve used a few “free” filing programs. You finally get to the end and ready to submit then bam, for some reason you have to pay
I’ve used free tax USA for years. I don’t pay for filing my fed, just my state. But my taxes tend to be pretty simple, so I guess ymmv
Another for freetaxusa, I’ve only ever paid for state filing, and it’s like $15. Worth it. They offer various “services” that naturally cost extra, but they’re all optional. Never had an issue.
You picked the wrong one. I’ve been filing free for years.
DOGE to the rescue, of course they’d save it right? …right?
Just stop paying taxes and filing for returns. If you are employed, go to your HR office and tell them you want to change your W4 for federal taxes to Exempt. Set up withholding allowance to zero. You will no longer be paying income tax from each check. Only social security and medicaid will still be taken. Then just stop filing for a tax return. If they want your money, they need a warrant.
What kind of SovCit crap is this?
The IRS doesn’t need a warrant to issue a levy. And once they do, they’ll garnish your wages, can take money from your bank/retirement accounts, and can seize and auction your personal property including vehicles and real estate.
Exactly. But right now they are gutting the IRS 50% of its workforce with the ultimate goal of abolishing the service. Once that happens, the government will be taking in revenue via go fund me. I’ll change to zero withholding of/when that happens.
If that happens, you’d be a fool not to change your withholding to zero because your employer would have every incentive to steal your withholding because the IRS is not there to enforce the business to pay your payroll taxes over to the federal government.
Unless you’re able to afford a stable of lawyers to protect you from an audit, you are low hanging fruit, and the IRS will absolutely still go after you.
It wouldn’t surprise me if they put some fucking AI in charge of that part of the Agency to choose the easiest targets.
They do what you let them do. No more and no less. You have no rights you aren’t willing to fight for.
There is no legal basis for this fight. Do you pollen to start shooting tax collectors?
There is a legal basis for the fight. You have a 4th amendment right to keep your property and documents including your money unless the state has a valid warrant. Under the 5th amendment you have the right to due process and if your property ie money is taken for public use you are entitled to just compensation. The IRS is not a legal authorized entity under the constitution. They are part of the executive branch. Only the legislative branch may levy taxes. That’s the jurisdictional challenge.
Can you explain the fringe thing to me, too?
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Since when has Trump ever made a decision based on whether it was a good idea? His only qualification for decisions is whether he personally benefits.
And most of the time he even fucks those decisions up.
This is totally offbrand for Trump
I don’t understand why Trump is doing anything other than trying to cancel it
Did you just read the headline and totally misunderstand it? The Trump administration plans to eliminate the IRS’ Direct File program.
Oh. I guess I did misread the headline.
Cause TurboTax told him so and he’s a dumbass.
With dnSpy it is quite a decent tool.
