News: 0178534708

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IRS Chief Says Agency Plans To End Free Filing Program (cnbc.com)

(Friday August 01, 2025 @11:22AM (msmash) from the all-good-things dept.)


Internal Revenue Service Commissioner Bill Long said the agency [1]will end its Direct File program after a limited pilot and one full filing season. From a report:

> President Donald Trump's massive spending and policy bill includes funding to research and "replace any direct e-file programs run by the Internal Revenue Service."

>

> Already, the program is "gone," Long said at a tax professional summit on July 28, Bloomberg Law reports. "You've heard of Direct File, that's gone," Long said. "Big beautiful Billy wiped that out. I don't care about Direct File. I care about direct audit."



[1] https://www.cnbc.com/2025/07/30/irs-chief-says-agency-plans-to-end-free-direct-file-program.html



US (Score:2, Insightful)

by Anonymous Coward

Where you have to pay, in order to pay your taxes.

Why (Score:2)

by Anonymous Coward

are republicans such obese pieces of shit and why haven't they keeled over from heart attacks and strokes?

USA now devolved to Canadian status (Score:1)

by Anonymous Coward

We never had anything resembling direct file with the Canadian Revenue Agency. You're as bad as us, you should be embarrassed.

I don't care about Direct File. I care about (Score:4, Insightful)

by stabiesoft ( 733417 )

"I don't care about Direct File. I care about direct audit for poor people", Fixed your quote for you Bill.

Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

by mmattox ( 7160131 )

And just how much did Intuit and HR Block donate to Trump?

Re: (Score:3)

by alexgieg ( 948359 )

Interestingly, no such company exists here in Brazil. The reason is that our government has been offering full tax filling apps for free since I remember filling taxes (about 25 years). It's written in Java and runs on Windows, Linux and Mac without any problem. And for people who a normal salary, without investments or anything complicated, there's also free simplified tax filling apps for Android and iOS.

If the person has extra-complex stuff going on with their earnings, they can hire an accountant to fil

well (Score:2)

by k3v0 ( 592611 )

are we winning yet?

Re: (Score:3)

by goldspider ( 445116 )

Maybe when third-parties stop nominating nutballs and cranks.

paper forms (Score:4, Interesting)

by awwshit ( 6214476 )

We should all do the IRS a favor and print out the forms and fill them out by hand. We should all mail them in for manual processing. See there is still a free option, its just not software and is more work for everyone including the IRS. Bury them in their own work.

Re: (Score:2)

by Froze ( 398171 )

You have my vote!

Re: (Score:1)

by UnknowingFool ( 672806 )

[sarcasm] Yes we should make things difficult for people just trying to do their jobs because we disagree with other things. Just the other day, I made the wait staff at a restaurant miserable with my constant and ridiculous demands because they dare charge me more for food due to inflation. I sure showed those college kids working part time.[/sarcasm]

Re: (Score:2)

by taustin ( 171655 )

Stamps aren't free. (And hand delivering will involve some kind of transportation cost.)

There's no such thing as a free lunch.

(But I agree, except this doesn't seem to be about free filing through third party sites, only about direct free filing.)

Re: (Score:2)

by whatdoibelieve ( 1622097 )

Stamps aren't free but neither is internet access. So there is always a cost. We are talking about the actual filing cost, not the cost of delivery to the IRS.

Wilcox's Law:
A pat on the back is only a few centimeters from a kick in the pants.