#direct file

In a post on X, unelected government official Elon Musk revealed that he has cut the staff of the Internal Revenue Service that oversaw the system that allows Americans to file their taxes for free easily on its website.

A right-wing MAGA influencer called the "direct file" tax program a "far left government wide computer office" that was "built by Elizabeth Warren."

"Direct File" doesn't seem to be gone, (yet,) but it's really fucking scary that Musk is talking about getting rid of it

Hey, if you're in the US, it's tax season again!

Want to make it easy to deal with? And not pay someone else to do it for you? The IRS has continued to expand their free online services - if you live in any of these states (and don't have a more complicated situation), you can file directly with the government and cut out a lot of the cruft in the middle!

(That's almost half the country on-board now; if your state _isn't_ on the list, why don't you contact your governor and state legislature, and ask why they won't let the government money you spend on the IRS be used to provide government services for you...)

ALT

Here: IRS Direct File

WASHINGTON (AP) — 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.

Today, we at the Northwest Progressive Institute are proud to stand in solidarity with a hundred and fourteen fellow organizations in support of new federal legislation introduced by Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Massachusetts) and Representative Brad Sherman (D-California) that would let Americans file their taxes electronically with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) for free in the future — an…