Direct File Won't Happen in 2026, IRS Tells States (nextgov.com)
- Reference: 0179997216
- News link: https://news.slashdot.org/story/25/11/07/1934227/direct-file-wont-happen-in-2026-irs-tells-states
- Source link: https://www.nextgov.com/digital-government/2025/11/direct-file-wont-happen-2026-irs-tells-states/409309/
> The IRS has notified states that offered [1]the free, government tax filing service known as Direct File in 2025 that the program [2]won't be available next filing season . In an email sent from the IRS to 25 states, the tax agency thanked them for collaborating and noted that "no launch date has been set for the future."
>
> "IRS Direct File will not be available in Filing Season 2026," says the Monday email, obtained by Nextgov/FCW and confirmed by multiple sources. It follows reports that the program was ending and Trump's former tax chief, Billy Long, remarking over the summer that the service was " [3]gone ."
>
> The program, which debuted in 2024, was a big shift from the decades-long IRS policy of not competing with the tax prep industry in offering its own free, online tax filing service for Americans. Many Republicans had opposed Direct File, and tax prep companies also lobbied against it.
[1] https://news.slashdot.org/story/24/05/30/2043227/irs-opening-free-online-tax-filing-program-to-all-states
[2] https://www.nextgov.com/digital-government/2025/11/direct-file-wont-happen-2026-irs-tells-states/409309/
[3] https://news.slashdot.org/story/25/08/01/1522254/irs-chief-says-agency-plans-to-end-free-filing-program
Re: (Score:1)
> The real winners, of course, are the commercial tax preparation software companies.
Remember when US voters were told they were going to win a lot?
[1]https://www.cnn.com/videos/pol... [cnn.com]
Oh wait. That's a link from CNN which is fake news. My apologies.
[1] https://www.cnn.com/videos/politics/2017/08/18/trump-albany-rally-winning-sot.cnn
Re: (Score:2)
To be accurate, he said "we" are going to win so much, while leaving "we" ambiguous.
The missing definition of "we" is "we billionaires" but was purposefully left ambiguous so that ignorant salt-of-the-earth types would think they're included too when they never were.
"We" are now finding that out the hard way. Well, some of "we" - about 75 million people figured it out previous to the election last year, but not everyone learns at the same pace.
Re: (Score:1, Troll)
No you don't. Fill out a 1040 and drop it in the mailbox for free. If you can't figure out the 1040, it means you're making enough money to afford a CPA to do it for you.
Re: (Score:2)
Why do you need to fill out anything if everything is already reported by your employer and financial institution?
Re: (Score:3)
Is your "employer" the only the place you make money?
Re: (Score:1)
You need to fill it out because by doing so you're authorizing the government to take your money. Otherwise they're literally just stealing it.
Re: (Score:1)
Bingo! Never used a tax prep service. And I am self employed (so no ez-form for me). For me the government(open or closed) is a money sink, which provides little useful return in day to day life.
Taxes are pretty simple really. Uncle Guido(the government) takes x% of every dollar you make. it is November so I'm paying 15.3 Fed and Fica, all my current income atm is in the 22% bracket and the state and local taxes(blue state) takes another 6-8%. So just add it up and send the money.
Re: Fuck this country (Score:3)
I have had tax filings that were several hundred pages including worksheets. It would have been impossible to do reliably without software.
Taxes are not simple for everybody.
Re: (Score:2)
Even as someone who votes left more than any other way, I'd be entirely okay with killing the AMT. It is a huge pain to deal with.
The real problem, IMO, is that Congress needs to get off its a** and pass laws requiring brokerages and retirement plans to provide all of the tax data in a fully computed form so that you can fill in the boxes on your tax worksheet and be done, rather than having to look through every single line and figure out which ones were short-term, which were long-term, which had foreig
Re: (Score:3)
Awesome analysis. /s
Now take a crack at this one:
IF the government receives all the same paperwork that I do for filling out that 1040 form and dropping it in the mail;
AND they use that exact same paperwork for checking my math for any of hundreds of tiny mistakes that can be made;
AND they are always thought to be right, with the burden of proof otherwise being on me
WHY does each and every one of us need to bother with this bullshit instead of receiving a 1040 that we can review and open a request if we thi
Re: (Score:2)
> drop it in the mailbox for free.
I don't think that will work. You need to pay to mail it. What is really interesting is that it will cost far more for the IRS to process it. Interesting that DOGE missed that isn't it?
Taxes are a government requirement (Score:3)
Since taxes are required by the government, and go to fund the government, the government should be doing everything it can to make filing easy and accurate.
A good tax filing platform, like a road, is a [1]public good [google.com]. However, private companies also make tax filing platforms, and one provided by the government is competition to them, and reduces profit. So, it makes sense they would try to eliminate the government option. They can privatize and profit from this public good.
Government is influenced by everyone from individual citizens to large corporations, via money. I have found this page, at Open Secrets, to be very useful in understanding all the ways that legal constructs (businesses, unions, etc) and people can direct money to the government: [2]https://www.opensecrets.org/resources/learn/glossary [opensecrets.org]
[1] https://www.google.com/search?q=what+is+a+public+good
[2] https://www.opensecrets.org/resources/learn/glossary
Re:Taxes are a government requirement (Score:5, Insightful)
> the government should be doing everything it can to make [X] easy
Not according to this group. As Grover Norquist told a bunch of neocons in the '90s, "You're not going to be able to convince voters that government is broken unless you break it first." (He's the conservative 'thought leader' who said he wanted to use the debt to reduce government to the size where "I can drag it into the bathroom and drown it in the tub.)
Re: (Score:1)
Or the tax system could be simplified.
Small potatoes (Score:1)
Of all the things that rub me the wrong way about the current administration, this barely makes the list. The conservative peanut gallery loves to point at the left for wanting "free shit" and a free tax prep service is practically the closest they've gotten to having a point. You can technically do your taxes for free by manually filling out the forms yourself. Admittedly, they're a bit confusing and getting some advise might be required, but once you've got the gist of it - it's the same process every
Re: (Score:2)
> You can technically do your taxes for free by manually filling out the forms yourself.
I can't think of any business or other government function that still makes me fill out any paper forms. At one recent employer I did not fill out a single paper or PDF-style form, HR or otherwise, in the entire experience from the day I applied until the day I resigned.
Nobody uses paper forms any more. Everything is online. Taxes should be no different, and there should be no 3rd party middlemen collecting tolls for the "privilege" of doing something online the way everything else is done.
Any open source alternatives? (Score:2)
Should be able to at least implement one for basic submissions.
It's one reason Trump's leaning into redistricting (Score:4, Insightful)
Project 2025 is basically a billionaire wishlist - most of its elements will actively hurt anyone who's not super-rich, and Trump and his masters know they can't really hide that fact anymore. They also know they're almost certainly gonna get hammered - in the popular vote - in next year's midterms, so they need to stack the deck. Fortunately for them, there are enough ultra-rich Republicans running a few of the more populous states - who know Project 2025 benefits them as well.
The downside (from the GOP point of view) is that even in GOP-led states, the big cities tend to lean Democrat - and redistricting alone may not be enough. So they're working towards pre-staging the Border Patrol and National Guard in as many of those cities as they can, getting ready for active voter suppression.
MAGA! (Score:3)
Fucking you over makes America great again.
Shouldn't even need to file in the first place. (Score:3)
The IRS should send everyone a note that says "here's what we have so far, is there anything else that we should know?" And "here's the tax amount that we calculated, is there anything you'd like to do differently?"
For most Americans, the answers would be no and yes, and then it's just a matter of settling the balance.
(Make the penalty for failure to disclose income bigger, because a lot of people will view the first question as an invitation to lie.)
Given how much gets reported to the IRS automatically, the only remaining purpose of filing a return is just to give the government an opportunity to penalize anyone who gets it wrong. And as the tax code gets more complex that they are increasingly setting us up to fail. It's just sadistic.
Make it a service, not an ordeal.
how taxes work in Sweden (Score:2)
This is how it works in Sweden. Employers and banks report to the tax agency, and once a year you get an overview of what they have got, and a preliminary calculation. If it's correct, just can just sign the paper version and send, or sign with e-id or one time code at the government e-service. There you can also make common deductions (like commuting expenses) before signing, and the tax will be adjusted accordingly.
The tax agency also has guides how to do different kinds deductions. They also has a mostly
IRS Free File Fillable Forms (Score:2)
Will still be available AFAICT. [1]Free File Fillable Forms [irs.gov] are basically just the PDF forms which are connected to the IRS and are electronically processed by them. I've used them the past few years. They offer no hand holding like the commercial products so this does require you to understand your taxes and most of the basic forms.
[1] https://www.irs.gov/e-file-providers/free-file-fillable-forms
Re: (Score:2)
Yeah, I've used them in the past. This time, I think I'll still use them - but then print them out and mail them in.
I might hand-write in a couple of the numbers, just to add to the burden.
Of course, everyone could rebel (Score:2)
and file handwritten paper returns.
Right now the commercial solutions do save time. If or when they start jacking up the prices, then the value proposition may change.
!free, good riddance (Score:1)
The money spent on this program is estimated to be somewhere between $41M and $129M. At the low end, $41M, that's $138 per return, or $434 at the high end.
I believe these were all simple returns, returns that could easily have used any of the existing free filing services, at no cost to the taxpayer.
These aren't just startup costs; the IRS estimated the running costs to be between $64M and $249M annually (so probably around $750M annually).
Re: (Score:3)
Sorry but from an outside perspective that just sounds nuts. So let's take your 'worst case' - $129M overall cost making it $434 per entry - you're saying there are only 297,235 (129M / 434) tax payers in the US? A [1]quick search from me [consumershield.com] shows the number of filings to be at 145M+. If everyone could file for free, that $129M would be 88c per person.
And I'm speaking from experience. I'm in the UK. I've recently filed my annual self-assessment tax. I used the free service on the UK government web site and the
[1] https://www.consumershield.com/articles/how-many-tax-returns-are-filed-each-year
what more evidence is needed? (Score:1)
these people are not on the side of the average population
OK fine, I'll file by paper-mail (Score:1)
It will cost the government more to process the return.
If everyone did this and they made it clear to their representatives WHY they were doing it this way, it might "move the needle."
Of course (Score:5, Insightful)
Something which makes it easier and more convenient for people to file taxes cannot be tolerated.
Whatever it takes, you will pay. That is their goal.
Re:Of course (Score:5, Insightful)
The big tax preparation software companies lobbied strongly against the Direct File system, for obvious reasons.
They are just as obviously operating as a cartel, keeping their prices "in the same ballpark" without exactly matching. I remember a day when TaxAct was still a new entrant into the market, and it had excellent features and support at a price that significantly undercut TurboTax and H&R Block. Once it achieved popularity, its price suddenly jumped (a bit more than double) to match that of H&R block. Its features and support didn't improve at all; the price hiked and that was it.
TurboTax still charges more than the other two, creating an illusion of price competition. The truth is that TurboTax is significantly more popular, so it charges more, even though its features and service level are merely equivalent (at best).
So they all three ride on the same gravy train, and the last thing they want is a taxpayer-funded entity to provide a high quality option for free. They might have to actually EARN their income then! So they applied their considerable wealth to the political action of killing this offering, and succeeded.
Re: (Score:3)
I've used TaxAct for years, out of familiarity more than anything, but find its user interface about as appealing as a dog's breakfast.
Re:Of course (Score:5, Informative)
This is probably the least surprising news from the current Sadministration this year. Popular program? Saved (common) people money? Cost very little to implement? Works really well? Reduces user errors? Reduces cheating? Yeah, we all knew it wouldn't last.
Re: (Score:2)
I'm sure the billionaires that run operations like Intuit TurboTax had no input on this delay, either.
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Fun fact the Republicans pushed through laws that require a certain number of audits for middle-income and lower income earners. They literally passed laws to encourage the IRS to audit you personally.
The idea was to make you angry at the IRS and then to use that anger to get tax cuts for their billionaire buddies. It worked
You know that old Looney tunes cartoon where Elmer fudd turns into a sucker? If you voted Republican in the last 50 years that's you.
I'm not the one you should be angry at by t