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.
The program had been in limbo since the start of the Trump administration as Elon Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency have slashed their way through the federal government. Musk posted in February on his social media site, X, that he had “deleted” 18F, a government agency that worked on technology projects such as Direct File.
TurboTax and their lobbyists can go suck a railroad spike.
Or a .45
Why would slightly less than half of a railroad spike be better?
You both need to get a bit more fallout in your fantasy.
https://fallout-archive.fandom.com/wiki/Railway_rifle_(Fallout_3)
Speed and assurance.
They can go glom on some glizzys.
How big of a check did Intuit write to his campaign? Only industrialized nation to have this nonsense. They send you bill in Europe.
Unfortunately distrust of the government permeates American society. Sometimes it’s well founded. Americans love to try to cheat the government from top to bottom, and that includes taxes. And there’s the whole lobby of tax preparers and filers that don’t want the simplicity of government issued prepared tax bills. So to sum up - “I don’t trust the government, I want the ability to avoid telling them about the car I sold for a huge profit, and all the tax preparers want to keep billing me to do my taxes.”
Remember in his first term when he said he’d make taxes fit on a postcard? Hypocrites break promises all the time, it takes a real piece of shit to run as fast as he can in the other direction.
Wow, thanks, now I can feel the government efficiency every time I go and pay hundreds of dollars to do what I could have done for free! So much winning, I really am sick of it!
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.
I’m sure those companies are just looking out for wasteful spending of tax dollars. Not so they can collect and sell your data. Not so they can attempt to upsell you on getting virtual assistance when their own software is to complicated for the some users. Not so they can spring surprise charges on you at the last minute. But so they can charge processor fees for paying due taxes. Not so they can maintain monopolies that allow them to charge higher prices for their filing services. Not so they can continue to lobby the government to make the tax system more unnecessarily complicated and working even more in their favor. No, it’s the congressional budget they’re worried about. Sure.
Bro I didn’t feel like fucking with the free fillable forms (basically an electronic version equivalent to filling out and mailing in paper forms) so I used H&R Block this year. They forced me to pay 60 because I can’t file if something somewhat arbitrary “needs done” and having an HSA meant they forced me to input info about it for determining itemizing vs standard. I knew I was taking the standard, could tell them to ignore that HSA shit and still it wouldn’t let me file for free.
It was so stupid.
Next year I’ll not wait until the last minute and go through the trouble of actually filling out the forms but it’s a pain in the ass.
I wish our taxes were like everywhere else on this planet with a reasonable and effective government. Send me a check or a bill. If I think I’m due more or shouldn’t owe I’ll do my own audit of their math and can say “hey fix this” but 99% of the time it’s just right. So much easier and cheaper and simpler.
This country is a joke sometimes.
I remember when running a successful business required accountants to count the beans. Is this what running government as a business looks like?
Government isn’t supposed to be profitable. You cannot keep cutting to profitability in government. That’s not why it exists. Big difference. However, it should be accountable. That’s what the bean counters should be doing.
It’s always been free to file your own taxes btw. It’s not new under Biden, they just repackaged it.
