The letter arguing that the incoming admin should end DirectFile makes 2 points that I think have some merit.
1) DirectFile makes the IRS the “tax assessor, collector, preparer, and enforcer”. In other words people are now totally beholden to paying whatever tax the IRS tells them to. A software bug that causes one’s taxes to be incorrectly high would be hard to get resolved and there is a misalignment of incentives.
$240,000 is really inexpensive in the end. Makes you wonder why most
Companies aren’t; If not already are doing the same.
astrange 1 minutes ago [-]
Because that's not why it happened. There's just an assumption in American politics that whenever anything bad happens it's because of "corporations" and not ideology.
Republicans are against easy tax filing because Grover Norquist makes them all sign pledges against it, not because of lobbying.
Jtsummers 2 minutes ago [-]
That's just 2025 Q1 lobbying money. They've been at this for quite a while and spent a lot more than just $240k. They just finally got an administration in office that's openly willing to make the government less efficient and less cost effective.
cortesoft 2 minutes ago [-]
That’s what I was thinking… I would expect the lobbying to be way more of their budget, since their entire business model depends on keeping the status quo.
hrldcpr 4 minutes ago [-]
The article does also mention other bribes they've given recently, including $1 million to Trump
stevenpetryk 3 minutes ago [-]
FreeTaxUSA only cost me like… $20? in California this year and had very little upsells. Highly recommend!
dmart 9 minutes ago [-]
I used Direct File this year. Super fast and simple, no upsells or bullshit. Feels like every little thing just gets worse and worse lately.
Rendered at 02:50:33 GMT+0000 (Coordinated Universal Time) with Vercel.
1) DirectFile makes the IRS the “tax assessor, collector, preparer, and enforcer”. In other words people are now totally beholden to paying whatever tax the IRS tells them to. A software bug that causes one’s taxes to be incorrectly high would be hard to get resolved and there is a misalignment of incentives.
2) Operating DirectFile cost $814/filing in 2024. This is a lot more expensive than commercial offerings. Compare to https://turbotax.intuit.com/personal-taxes/online/
Even if you think both of these arguments are garbage it’s clear how they could resonate with many people.
Cheap open source tax assessment & preparation seems like an extremely good use case for AI Agents.
The letter: https://adriansmith.house.gov/sites/evo-subsites/adriansmith...
Republicans are against easy tax filing because Grover Norquist makes them all sign pledges against it, not because of lobbying.