Trump Administration Plans to Nuke Popular Free IRS Tax Filing System
Julia Ornedo, The Daily Beast, 4/16/25
The Trump administration reportedly plans to kill a highly popular program that allows millions of people to file their taxes for free.
Two sources told The Associated Press that the government is looking to eliminate the IRS’ Direct File system rolled out last year under the Biden administration and later made permanent after it was “overwhelmingly liked” by taxpayers.
Republican lawmakers and commercial tax preparation firms have argued, however, that the program was a waste of taxpayer funds since free filing programs are already available.
IRS staff behind Direct File were reportedly told in mid-March to stop developing the program for the 2026 tax filing season. Major workforce cuts at the tax agency have also threatened the system.
There was some anticipation that Elon Musk and his team of programmers at DOGE would take over Direct File and make it better, but the billionaire personally dashed those hopes in February when he wrote in an ambiguous X post that he “deleted” the team behind the program.
“That group has been deleted,” Musk said of 18F, an office within the General Services Administration that created Direct File with the IRS.
Federal News Network reported that 18F was shuttered in March under DOGE’s slash-and-burn approach to cutting down government spending.
“Per the Trump administration requiring cutting ‘non-essential consulting’ functions, the 18F office has been identified as part of this phase of GSA’s reduction in force as non-critical,” a GSA official reportedly told staff. “This decision was made with explicit direction from the top levels of leadership within both the administration and GSA.”
Direct File is available for about 32 million taxpayers across 25 states. Last year, over 140,000 people filed returns through the free system.
Intuit, the software company behind the TurboTax filing system, said Direct File “is and has been a solution in search of a problem, a drain on critical IRS resources, and a waste of taxpayer dollars.”
Intuit donated $1 million to President Donald Trump’s inaugural fund in January.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren, a Direct File proponent, told the AP that the Trump administration is “going after Direct File because it stops giant tax prep companies from ripping taxpayers off for services that should be free. Americans want a free and easy way to file their taxes—Trump and Musk want to take that away.”