The Daily Populous Wednesday June 4th, 2025 evening edition
Authored by 404media.co and submitted by nickkrewson

The IRS open sourced much of its incredibly popular Direct File software as the future of the free tax filing program is at risk of being killed by Intuit’s lobbyists and Donald Trump’s megabill. Meanwhile, several top developers who worked on the software have left the government and joined a project to explore the “ future of tax filing ” in the private sector.

Direct File is a piece of software created by developers at the US Digital Service and 18F, the former of which became DOGE and is now unrecognizable, and the latter of which was killed by DOGE . Direct File has been called a “ free, easy, and trustworthy ” piece of software that made tax filing “ more efficient .” About 300,000 people used it last year as part of a limited pilot program, and those who did gave it incredibly positive reviews, according to reporting by Federal News Network .

But because it is free and because it is an example of government working, Direct File and the IRS’s Free File program more broadly have been the subject of years of lobbying efforts by financial technology giants like Intuit, which makes TurboTax. DOGE sought to kill Direct File , and currently, there is language in Trump’s massive budget reconciliation bill that would kill Direct File. Experts say that “ending [the] Direct File program is a gift to the tax-prep industry that will cost taxpayers time and money.”

mooptastic on June 4th, 2025 at 15:32 UTC »

they can open source the software, but they still need yearly tax updates for the current year. all the IRS has to do is lock down updates to the larger corporations like Intuit/Lacerte only, and that's it.

ccReptilelord on June 4th, 2025 at 14:32 UTC »

Fear not citizens, I'm certain that there are government officials that are trying to remedy this. We'll probably be required to file with a certified tax service or pay an independent filing fee or something.

MotoChooch on June 4th, 2025 at 14:26 UTC »

I'm shocked freetaxusa.com still exists.