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Elon Musk to the 99%---No Free Tax Filing for You.

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probinson

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essentialsaltes said:
[Treasury Sec Bessent said people weren't using it. Users doubled in 2025 compared to 2024.]
Click to expand...

Actually, Bessent said this:

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, who is also the current IRS commissioner, told reporters at the White House on Wednesday that there are “better alternatives” to Direct File. “It wasn’t used very much,” he said. “And we think that the private sector can do a better job.”​

According to the article, for the 2025 tax season, 296,531 taxpayers used IRS Direct File. Given that there were roughly 145 million tax returns, that means that just 0.2% of taxpayers used IRS Direct File last season. I think most people would agree that could be classified as not being used "very much".

Additionally, I expect that all of the major tax filing companies will continue to offer free federal tax filing services as they have for years. So I'm not sure what all the fuss is about.
 
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essentialsaltes

essentialsaltes

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probinson said:
According to the article, for the 2025 tax season, 296,531 taxpayers used IRS Direct File. Given that there were roughly 145 million tax returns, that means that just 0.2% of taxpayers used IRS Direct File last season. I think most people would agree that could be classified as not being used "very much".
Click to expand...
There are (or were) many limitations on who could use the system, including that it was only available in 25 states. But 100% growth in a year for a new product is pretty good.
 
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probinson

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essentialsaltes said:
There are (or were) many limitations on who could use the system, including that it was only available in 25 states. But 100% growth in a year for a new product is pretty good.
Click to expand...

Maybe so, but it still only accounted for about 1 of every 500 tax returns filed.

The opinion included at the end of the article is pretty misleading.

Adam Ruben, a vice president at the liberal-leaning Economic Security Project, said “it’s not surprising” that the program was eliminated.​
​
“Trump’s billionaire friends get favors while honest, hardworking Americans will pay more to file their taxes,” he said.​
​
This fails to acknowledge that there are many tax preparation companies out there that offer "honest, hardworking Americans" free tax filing services. It would be one thing if ending IRS Direct File meant people would now have to pay for their tax filing. But that's not the case for the vast majority of that 0.2% of tax fillers that used the service last year. Those people will still have multiple options to have their taxes done at no cost to them.
 
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Fantine

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There are other free alternatives. I've used cash app for years. Free federal and state, and at times our taxes were 30 pages.
It just seems to me that by the time you gather and organize all the information why not do the last step?
I highly recommend them.
 
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Fantine

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probinson said:
Maybe so, but it still only accounted for about 1 of every 500 tax returns filed.

The opinion included at the end of the article is pretty misleading.

Adam Ruben, a vice president at the liberal-leaning Economic Security Project, said “it’s not surprising” that the program was eliminated.​
​
“Trump’s billionaire friends get favors while honest, hardworking Americans will pay more to file their taxes,” he said.​
​
This fails to acknowledge that there are many tax preparation companies out there that offer "honest, hardworking Americans" free tax filing services. It would be one thing if ending IRS Direct File meant people would now have to pay for their tax filing. But that's not the case for the vast majority of that 0.2% of tax fillers that used the service last year. Those people will still have multiple options to have their taxes done at no cost to them.
Click to expand...
Free federal expensive state. Only cash app covers both for free. Most people would benefit from the IRS filing program. States should do the same.
 
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probinson

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Fantine said:
Free federal expensive state. Only cash app covers both for free. Most people would benefit from the IRS filing program. States should do the same.
Click to expand...

IRS Direct File was only for federal filing.

In PA, they have "myPATH", which is how I do my state taxes. I use TurboTax for my federal filing, but I don't pay the extra for the state filing. The IRS Direct File never included state filing. Pretty sure most states have a free tax filing website.
 
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