IRS head says free Direct File tax service is 'gone'

https://www.theverge.com/news/717308/irs-direct-file-gone-billy-long-trump-administration

205 198 12 months ago

Kapura2• 12 months ago

This is the republican endgame: destroy anything of public value, privately capture all organs of a functioning state and divide them up for profit.

actionfromafar5• 12 months ago

And stamp some newspeak hypocritical label on it. That last part is important for the Fox ticker.

AndyMcConachie2• 12 months ago

You could elect Democrats and it would be just as crappy. They'd just talk nicer to you.

phkahler• 12 months ago

> You could elect Democrats and it would be just as crappy.

Crappy for different reasons though. This tax filing thing was implemented on their watch, so they would not be the ones to dismantle it. Somehow we seem to get the worst ideas from both parties rather than the best.

staplers• 12 months ago

.. so still better

radiofreeeuropa4• 12 months ago

They're usually better for the deficit (yes, really, if you just looked at the data and not rhetoric Republicans are who you'd vote for if you wanted to make the deficit worse) and sometimes do stuff like effective consumer protection enforcement, do a lot less of things like trying to sell off public land to extractive industries, haven't tried to use the civil service as a captured partisan tool & loyalist-reward program since like the 19th century, and occasionally get us at least baby-steps in the right direction like this now-removed direct filing program and the ACA (god knows what they might accomplish if those baby steps didn't keep getting completely wiped out every few years, perhaps they'd move beyond that! But I guess we'll never know because we keep electing Republicans)

valbaca• 12 months ago

Except when we DID elect Democrats we got the free Direct File tax service. so no, it's not "just as crappy"

schnable3• 12 months ago

Meanwhile, Dems pissed away billions trying and failing to build things like high speed rail, rural broadband, and EV charging network. Somebody needs to figure out a way to make this stuff work.

sagarm• 12 months ago

HSR is getting built; the USD successfully connected rural areas, though I agree that was pointless; EV charger build out is accelerating despite funds being illegally yanked back.

Tadpole9181• 12 months ago

Every example you have was blocked or disrupted by Republicans. And yet you're blaming Democrats for failing? What, exactly, are they supposed to do?

beej713• 12 months ago

They did. It was called DirectFile, and it was working great with overwhelmingly positive reviews.

qingcharles2• 12 months ago

These are all good aims, though. Everything in your list is a net positive for the country. Some problems are hard, though.

const_cast2• 12 months ago

The thing is at least this are all good things that I want, and other people want.

Meanwhile, the Republicans are actively making things worse, on purpose, and we're saving... let me just check here... oh, -2 Trillion dollars.

Wow, what a steal! You're telling me I get less AND I pay more? Great!

mulletbum• 12 months ago

How does something like this happening not make people immediately realize that the Republican party is not working for the people anymore? I don't think Dems are doing a bang up job, but this is something developed and deployed, 100% working, that only helps the American people navigate a complicated tax system. The only reason to get rid of it is to hurt the American people.

Kapura2• 12 months ago

People can only get mad at the things they know about. My guess is the Murdoch Network of news organizations will not cover this heavily, if at all.

iamtheworstdev• 12 months ago

and if they do cover it, they will blame the other party for mismanaging it.

miltonlost5• 12 months ago

Or they'll cover it and say how this is a win for the American public because they no longer need to use a socialist government website to file their taxes.

edoceo2• 12 months ago

Sinclair too. US needs more independent media. Or the current media should get good.

andsoitis5• 12 months ago

I looked, but couldn’t see this story covered by the NYT or NPR either…. Can you see it?

Could it be that there’s simply bigger news?

actionfromafar5• 12 months ago

Doesn't matter. They will gladly take it on the chin if they believe the other guy gets it worse.

lokar• 12 months ago

Populism has a zero sum view of the world. Absolute prosperity is less important than relative prosperity. In addition, for some there is a very strong expectation that they should be more prosperous than “out” groups (in the US, racial minorities).

Liberal policy in the US since Clinton has failed to deal with this, focusing instead on absolute prosperity (GDP per-capita). And progressive policy has been ineffective since they promise equality, including with minorities.

jameskilton• 12 months ago

Because for probably the vast majority of Republican voters, this is effectively a religion (identity politics). It doesn't matter what the Republican party chooses to do, voting Republican is a part of who people are and to do anything else is simply unbelievable.

mingus88• 12 months ago

To expand on this a little, even before this hyper-tribalism consumed politics, conservatism has always had an in-group / out-group mentality

It has been remarkably effective to find a niche wedge issue and drive it to the forefront.

Abortion, guns, big city crime, religion…the practical impact these issues have on most people’s daily lives is dwarfed by economic policy but it hits the emotional nerve centers and has a crisp message.

And that’s how you get people voting against their best interests time and time again

andsoitis5• 12 months ago

My observation is that “both sides” (EDIT: of the electorate) are locked in this dynamic. In the ideal world people are able to evaluate specific ideas, but instead people judge ideas based on who it comes from.

ryandrake3• 12 months ago

This is why arguing politics with these guys is pointless. I once naively thought I could bring around one of my MAGA friends to the light side by focusing on policy but it just doesn't work. He admitted that everything Team R is doing is not really helping him but in the end it's always something like: "Look, I was born a Republican, my family is Republican, I will never vote Democrat, no matter what any of them do. We have to trust Trump to do the right thing." It's truly a religion. There is no getting to these people.

dfee2• 12 months ago

From the perspective of an independent, I’m not sure why you’re singling out Republicans here. It reads just as true if you’re to swap in the word Democrat.

- from California

shazbotter3• 12 months ago

Poor information diet.

Positioning this as a program from the previous admin (therefore bad).

Positioning this as a win for privatization (therefore good).

And people not willing to look at politics as something beyond a sport.

Quite frankly, I believe both parties are pretty foul, and people should be looking outside of them for policy positions that actually help people, but I suppose that makes me naive or whatever.

ubermonkey2• 12 months ago

"Anymore?" At what point has the GOP worked for "the people" at all?

I'm 55. At no point in my life has the GOP pushed any policy initiative that would help regular humans. Instead, they've been the party of fearmongering -- about women, about drugs, about immigrants, about African Americans, about gay people, and the devil, about trans people, etc.

The Dems have been the party that advanced actual helpful policies, but holy crap do they ever have a messaging problem IN ADDITION to an effectiveness issue. But at least their marching orders are actually helpful.

jayd16• 12 months ago

You probably have to go back to before the civil rights movement.

criddell• 12 months ago

Nixon created the EPA, he expanded the Clean Air Act, he signed the Endangered Species Act. He did a lot of good for the environment in the early 70's.

bell-cot• 12 months ago

I'm 55. At no point in my life has the GOP pushed any policy initiative that would help regular humans.

You're overstating the case a bit. Nixon and Ford were not bad for most people. Nixon's motives might have been extremely self-serving on domestic issues - but he was re-elected in '72, amid the Vietnam War and many other troubles, with 60.7% of the popular vote. Take a peek at his domestic policies: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Nixon#Domestic_policy He didn't need Watergate, nor any other dirtywork to easily win the election - he just couldn't keep himself from scratching his Paranoid Creepy Idiot itch.

Yes, after Ford, the GOP was taken over by a team-up of "Conquer, Loot, and Pillage" fiscal conservatives, and "Dump Jesus and Jimmy, 'Cause Our Rightful Kingdom is of This World" religious conservatives.

Flip-side, I don't see the Dems nearly so favorably. In the Carter-ish years they phased out most of their historic concern for ordinary Americans. In favor of hanging out with rich & slimy, and performative concern for ever-smaller minorities.

wand3r2• 12 months ago

There simply is no alternative. Normal people must be completely blackpilled like me. The Democrats have an approval rating the lowest in Decades. None of these people are "working for [us]". Everyone is captured and this country is over. I really mean this. As part of the working class, we all feel this way.

threatofrain• 12 months ago

Because Obamacare was such a fuckup? Where is Trumpcare? Where is Trumphousing? Bushfinancing? Bushtransport? How about even as a promise, and not as a delivered reality?

hkhanna2• 12 months ago

This can be fixed with sane campaign finance laws. Every elected Democrat I know is willing to enact those if Citizens United is overruled. And every Democratic-appointed Justice on the Supreme Court would vote to overturn Citizens United. I know it sounds trite, but voting for Democrats again and again, flawed as they are, for generations, is the only way we're going to get out of this mess.

theranfear• 12 months ago

No. The alternative is to have some courage. It's easier to destroy than it is to create. There is a responsibility bias against the Democratic party because they're the only ones that know how to govern. Everyone is responsible is some way for the outcome. Our political rivals have attacked us so hard we're starting to believe the characterization they've made of us. I don't buy into the 'Everyone is captured and this country is over' message. It's a false equivocacy and just an excuse to be super critical of our own people.

aidenn0• 12 months ago

Due to first-past-the-post voting in the US, I have at most two realistic options for my vote.

For the majority of the problems I see that I believe the government should be addressing, one side says "that's not a real problem" and the other side offers a really bad solution that they also won't realistically be able to make law.

nerdjon• 12 months ago

It drives me absolutely mad when I see (largely liberal people) complain about how both parties are the same and just as bad.

And its like... how do you really believe that? Like yeah both parties have the same corruption but welcome to politics.

So at this point I am convinced it is willful ignorance on both sides (or ulterior motives when I see certain left leaning people STILL bring up Biden or Harris in relation to trump as if either of them matter anymore in the slightest given our current situation, at this point I don't care what Biden did or did not do). Seeing something that goes against their views of "this side is bad" and just trying to talk it away as some "abuse of government power" or something to justify why it should not have been a thing in the first place while ignoring its real benefits.

TechRemarker• 12 months ago

Anytime big news like this, news report on it, but the specific news channels do not mention, at all or minimize it position it in a way of for instance.. got rid of a terrible tool that didnt work well and was inefficient etc. So instead of focusing on removing free tax service so people have to pay again, people think it's a good thing because x y z, or even if they you ask any they don't know why its a good thing, they say someone they trust says its a good thing and people they don't like says a bad thing, and that's enough.

radiofreeeuropa4• 12 months ago

The history of the last ~100 years of the study of democracy by basically pro-broad-franchise-democracy academics has been a journey from:

"Well, the masses must not be stupid, as restricted-franchise and anti-democratic folks have suggested, because this seems to kinda work. Let's study voter behavior to learn more about this."

"Uh. OK so we checked a hundred different ways, several times each to be sure, and they're in-fact incredibly poorly informed and have awful reasoning skills and their behavior, in aggregate, isn't driven by what we might hope it is at all. But, uh... I really want there to be a good outcome here, so, um, let's make some fuzzy guesses at how some kind of Wisdom of Crowds thingy and some sort of system-equilibria-seeking effects might save us? And let's keep double-checking those studies that kept proving voters are really dumb, because maybe... maybe we got something wrong?"

"Yeah all that was bullshit cope on our parts, it's all wrong. It's amazing this works at all. Voters are amazingly stupid, to a degree that's so hard to believe we spent decades and decades making sure—like it's proven about as surely as is the law of universal gravitation; cannot practically be educated out of that, maybe at all, and especially not if we first have to get them to vote to make that happen; and everything's basically held together by noise and circumstance and social norms, until it isn't. Go ahead and make that whisky a double. And line up another."

dasil003• 12 months ago

Intellectuals and academics coming to these conclusions and talking down to the populace is a big part of what has fueled anti-intellectualism and paved the way for demagogues to take over. If your response to today's ugly political landscape is that people are stupid, then you're not helping.

kyrra• 12 months ago

But there was already a free way you could file taxes with Turbotax, FreeTaxUSA, and H&RBlock if you had a simple return. Direct File was a government built alternative to that.

Eg: https://turbotax.intuit.com/personal-taxes/online/free-editi...

If there was also a free flow available, why would the government need to build an alternative?

ixwt• 12 months ago

And TurboTax got in a bunch of trouble because of the amount of dark patterns they were using to guide you away from the free filing.

[0] https://consumer.ftc.gov/consumer-alerts/2024/01/ftc-finds-t...

mind-blight• 12 months ago

Because those other companies actively violated agreements they made with the government in the 2000 to offer those services for free. They regularly tricked people into paying and lost a class action lawsuit over it.

It's also weird that we have to file taxes at all. Other developed countries have their revenue agencies automatically calculate the taxes for you and send a return. The only reason we don't is because of Intuit and H&R Block lobbying like crazy to prevent this. It's rent seeking at it's worse

WorldMaker• 12 months ago

Direct File was only built in the first place because Turbo Tax and H&R Block dropped out of agreements with the IRS to keep free tax filing options free and unencumbered of upsells and dark patterns.

The number of people their "free" products actually serve dropped drastically a couple years ago. They will upsell or dark pattern you to paying for it as best and as deeply as they can.

This was an interesting read on the subject: https://chrisgiven.com/2025/07/the-things-that-cannot-be-cha...

onlyrealcuzzo2• 12 months ago

How does something like this happening not make people immediately realize that the Republican party is not working for the people anymore?

anymore?

Are you implying that the GOP would have been for a free Direct File in years prior?

They wouldn't have.

This is not a new stance. I'm not sure why anyone in the Republican party would be shocked by this news, or why it would change their opinions.

This is similar to the Republican party doing something anti-abortion, and then Liberals being shocked, and saying, "You guys are really still going to vote for these people?"

Yeah, it's what they expected.

ratelimitsteve12• 12 months ago

Are you implying that the GOP would have been for a free Direct File in years prior?

Look at the Eisenhower campaign planks. A pro-union, pro-minimum wage Republican party isn't just possible, they did it and they won on it.

asadotzler2• 12 months ago

If you had even a minimal US history education or you wouldn't make such claims. Nixon was to the left of Obama on many issues. That you don't know this is symptomatic of the problem today. The right has moved so far to the right that what was once considered right is now lefter than anyone on the left is willing to be. This wasn't an accident. It was planned, and began around the time of Reagan. Almost half a century later, the country is radically changed and kids today think it's always been this way. Well, it hasn't.

ratelimitsteve12• 12 months ago

the book One Day Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This helped me realize that asking questions like this isn't really about contradiction, it's about revealed preference. In this case, it's about a revealed preference for social stability and personal comfort/familiarity in a system that's already been pushed over the inflection point and is now self-sustaining.

It helps to stop assuming people want what they say they want and start assuming that they want the predictable effects of their actions, then try to figure out what benefits those actions have or desires those effects may fulfill. When the group does something that's against your principles or best interests, there's an implicit question: do you value being part of the group more than you value this thing that we're transgressing against? When you look at it in this lens all sorts of behaviors start to make sense.

Also the reason to get rid of free tax filing is to exploit the American people, not just to hurt them for its own sake. Tell them they have to do something, make it as convoluted as possible, then sell a service that does it for them. It absolutely does hurt them, but that's not the driving force behind the effort.

amysox• 12 months ago

The cruelty is the point.

Also, don't expect them to do anything that benefits anyone other than their billionaire cronies.

david38• 12 months ago

Oh they do, but the democrats are so hated but a significant percentage of the population for their recent actions, people had to make a choice, and they did.

I’ve heard it described as “I know I’m being robbed, but I was already being robbed. I know this is a poor environmental choice, but the dems acted like we’re all children, thinking we have no choice but to support them. When they try to force through new social norms like they’ve been doing, it doesn’t even feel like my country anymore.”

I have to agree, they definitely encouraged the attitude of “either you agree with this new thing or you’re a Nazi”. Well, they certainly found out.

Of course this backlash is so bad it’s going to trigger another.

throw0101c• 12 months ago

How does something like this happening not make people immediately realize that the Republican party is not working for the people anymore?

It is working "for" the people who have (perceived?) grievances against others, and are enacting pain on those Others.

People are happy to screw themselves if they screw Others (even more):

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dying_of_Whiteness

The cruelty towards Others is the point (regardless what you, yourself, get hit with):

* https://archive.is/https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive...

sys_64738• 12 months ago

You're assuming there is rationality in Republican party voters. They are generally not educated people.

morninglight• 12 months ago

It's a "complicated tax system" when the president can't even complete his tax return for showing to the American public.

Very complicated.

m463• 12 months ago

Some people are of the opinion that ANY way to lessen the burden of taxation, especially automatic taxation, will lead to silent and continual increases of taxes.

I wonder if people actually know how much of their income is taxed away?

federal tax, state tax, local tax, property tax, sales tax, gas tax...

I wonder how much we actually get to keep, and I wonder how many people are aware of it both now and historically?

gaws• 12 months ago

How does something like this happening not make people immediately realize that the Republican party is not working for the people anymore?

It's all about "owning the libs" by any means necessary. Nothing more, nothing less.

ndkap• 12 months ago

The people who need to see it needs to see it in the entertainment hour of Fox News. I don't think Fox News would be disseminating this information at that hour

RickJWagner• 12 months ago

So you believe it was done just to hurt the American people?

No, that’s not plausible.

The article suggests Trump wanted to help tax software companies, but that overlooks the fact that Trumps previous increase to the standard deduction greatly simplified taxes for many filers. So that’s probably not it, either.

Trump is hell bent on raising taxes via tariffs, so it doesn’t seem likely that personal income taxes are a big part of whatever he’s planning.

Personally, I wish the government would start sending a bill, not putting the onus on the filer to make the calculation. That seems most sensible to me.

bix62• 12 months ago

Is it not in the governments interest to implement the cheapest, best system to enable all citizens to easily pay taxes? The IRS knows basic taxes better than anyone so certainly they are the most equipped to handle this program instead of the private sector?

baq• 12 months ago

It is in the interest of turbotax et al. shareholders and politicians who receive funding from their lobbyists.

the_hoser• 12 months ago

You presume that the people in charge have the best interests of the government in mind when they make their decisions.

datadrivenangel• 12 months ago

Many private interests want taxes to be inefficient and painful so they can lobby for lower taxes

xp842• 12 months ago

And ironically, those same interests don't usually lower either middle-class tax rates nor the required complexity of the returns themselves! They just farm annoyance by making "IRS" a dirty word, and harvest it by some combination of imposing austerity on the IRS to make tax cheating by rich people less risky, and policy changes that just happen to benefit a class of people that excludes the bottom 80%.

actionfromafar5• 12 months ago

GOP congresspeople have argued it's good to make it harder to pay taxes, that will make people pay less taxes, which is "starving the beast", which is good.

bananapub• 12 months ago

well, also it means that you can arbitrarily prosecute people, and it means Intuit etc will just give you, as a congressperson, bribes.

blactuary• 12 months ago

It is, but it is in individual politician's interest to take lobbying dollars from Intuit, who wants to keep gouging us

miltonlost5• 12 months ago

Yes, in a world where the government is run by a benevolent public servant. But we now have a fascist Republican government run by a rapist fraudster intent on pillaging whatever is left of America.

drstewart2• 12 months ago

Ah, high quality HN discussion

georgemcbay• 12 months ago

There is a giant and still ever-widening gap between what is in the best interest of the government* and what is in the best interest of elected officials and the wealthy special interests that fund them.

(* which should theoretically be indistinguishable from what is in the best interest of the people)

encom4• 12 months ago

I, a Dane, have literally never filed a tax return in my life. It's completely automatic. I get a letter every year (electronically) and unless I have corrections to the pre-filled numbers, I do nothing. Manually filing tax returns is something people did in the 80's.

I thought you guys were supposed to be tech pioneers or something.

testing22321• 12 months ago

Many countries have been working for decades on improving their societies, systems and quality of life.

The US has been boosting its GDP to the benefit of the rich while not improving a damn thing for regular people.

yencabulator• 12 months ago

I set up an electric utility account online. Later, I get a bill from them, that has my name misspelled. I use as hell did not misspell my name like that. In the back office somewhere they are employing people who read text from one application and type it in another.

The US is stuck in time somewhere along the 70-90s.

radiofreeeuropa4• 12 months ago

I'm convinced a bunch of things like this, which create expense and nickel-and-diming and wasted time for tons and tons of ordinary people, are why the US feels a lot poorer than it is on paper.

Like, Intuit and Turbotax contribute to GDP but their existence, at least at the size they are and in some of their roles, is purely a drag on QOL.

(of course, the biggest part of this is the healthcare system, which is great at making sick people and their families, not to mention HR folks and such, waste tens to hundreds of hours on things that aren't about healthcare itself at all, while also costing far more than it ought to—but there are lots of other things like this, see also the tipping-culture thread today, it's all part of that, little bits of bullshit that make life worse)

2b3a51• 12 months ago

Brit here, we have tax taken from gross pay automatically (Pay As You Earn, PAYE) for most people unless they are self-employed.

https://www.gov.uk/income-tax/how-you-pay-income-tax

When I was self-employed for a shortish period, I went for an assessment interview. The HMRC bod spent most of the 20 minutes trying to find expenses I could claim tax relief on. There wasn't much (working at home, using my own laptop, writing teaching materials based on existing knowledge &c).

edoceo2• 12 months ago

Is it that easy for small business owners too?

In the USA if you have a small business, with a few shareholders, it's an absolute nightmare.

bix62• 12 months ago

I thought you guys were supposed to be tech pioneers or something.

Lol thank you for the laugh

drstewart2• 12 months ago

What browser do you, as a Dane, use to electronically file? I assume something very advanced Danish-built?

mrexroad• 12 months ago

Unfortunately, private sector has a say in this as well UA lobbying. Intuit and H&R Block spend millions a year [1] in lobbying to protect their business, at the expense of the American people.

[1] https://substack.perfectunion.us/p/turbotaxs-intuit-spent-re...

Hilift2• 12 months ago

FYI, there are/were two systems. "Direct File" is probably the more complex and integrates directly with 25 participating states. The other is "Free File" and only covers some payers.

https://www.irs.gov/filing/irs-direct-file-for-free

https://www.irs.gov/filing/irs-free-file-do-your-taxes-for-f...

xp842• 12 months ago

Yep, and "Free File" is the one that you are required to go through TurboTax or their 1-2 'competitors' to do, who are free to do their best to essentially bury and shadowban it from search engines. They're required by law to offer it, but are allowed to try to hide it from you and to promote alternative programs that will likely result in upsells for most taxpayers.

Izkata• 12 months ago

Uh no, "Free File" is split into two versions and the second option on there, "Free File Fillable Forms", is available to everyone for free without using a third party. I've been using it for years.

tallowen• 12 months ago

Although these systems are similar in goals, they are pretty different in terms of how they're structured:

- Direct File: Was built by the US government to make tax filing easier - Free File: Is a subsidy from the US government to tax software to make it cheaper for people to file taxes

Direct file had the promise of making things easier and cheaper overall while Free File is more of a cost shifting approach.

Features like importing tax data from other federal government systems were included in Direct File to make it easier to file taxes. These types of features would be hard for those outside the government to do. At a values level, Free File provides funding to the tax preparation software companies. These companies benefit from difficulty in filing taxes because it creates a market for their products.

Hilift2• 12 months ago

Some of the DirectFile code was published on GitHub.

https://github.com/IRS-Public/direct-file

beezlebroxxxxxx• 12 months ago

It's incredible how little interest these ghouls have in the concept of "public good." Things like the conserving the environment or public health or even something as simple as free tax filing, are just seen as aisles for scoring ideological points or maximizing the interests of profit seeking entities.

actionfromafar5• 12 months ago

It's even worse. The ideology is that the government needs to be starved of income.

davidw• 12 months ago

They seem pretty ok with starving actual people too.

estearum4• 12 months ago

No it's not. Why are they bragging about tariff income then? There is no coherent ideology guiding the American right wing except centralizing power onto the monarch.

throwawaybob420• 12 months ago

Awesome! I love having great public services be fucking gutted for no goddamn reason.

_fat_santa2• 12 months ago

The only silver lining to this is that since the direct file code is open source, forks have already sprung up.

What I would love to see is one of these forks gain prominence and become the “Debian” of tax filing while TurboTax and HR block are the “Windows” and “MacOS” of the tax filing world

Granted I’ve been in this industry long enough to know that this is a tall tall order and finding consistent maintainers will be a huge challenge. But who knows maybe this will piss off just the right billionaire to make them dump a few dollars into a dev team that can build FreeFile

shazbotter3• 12 months ago

What does it mean to open source this? Genuinely. Won't the irs just say, "we only accept digital filing from known providers"?

mrcode007• 12 months ago

The workaround is for everyone to coordinate , print and mail physical returns. Let IRS have fun with scanning and processing :) enough people do this, IRS would open up digital filing again

_fat_santa2• 12 months ago

Just Print + Mail. Sure it's an extra hassle but if it means saving $80 on your tax filing then lots of people will jump through the additional hoops. And TBH having printed and mailed my tax returns before it's not that onerous.

lucasyvas• 12 months ago

It’ll become a paid offering lol. What’s the license?

holysoles2• 12 months ago

Its a custom license apparently, but its public domain for the US.

https://github.com/IRS-Public/direct-file/blob/main/LICENSE

Was required to be open-sourced from the SHARE IT act. One of the most common-sense bills in a long time.

https://www.congress.gov/bill/118th-congress/house-bill/9566

ChrisArchitect• 12 months ago

Earlier on source: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44730256

EE84M3i• 12 months ago

Is there any impact on Free Fillable Forms?

AndyMcConachie2• 12 months ago

I can't even ping irs.gov right now.

HTTPS request to www.irs.gov times out.

Great government we got here :(

steviedotboston• 12 months ago

works fine for me... i really doubt the irs website is down

holysoles2• 12 months ago

Dropping ICMP traffic isn't super uncommon to try to mitigate low-complexity DoS attacks, I also cannot ping irs.gov.

I can get to www.irs.gov in my browser though.

ndriscoll• 12 months ago

It's also a great way to introduce hard to debug network issues since PMTUD also relies on ICMP, and is basically mandatory for ipv6.

latchkey• 12 months ago

ICMP (ping) is often blocked and is an unreliable way to tell if a website is up.

HTTPS requests timing out might as easily be something on your end, or your provider.

Do you have a VPN on? A lot of government services block those.

selectodude• 12 months ago

You can't ping irs.gov. It blocks ICMP.

impish9208• 12 months ago

Most Americans don’t know of Grover Norquist, but he’s probably the most influential conservative activist on tax policy. He had a pledge that, at some point, almost all Republican congresspeople signed.

xnx2• 12 months ago

And despite that Republicans are now cheering one of the largest tax increases on US consumers (tariffs)

throw7• 12 months ago

The way taxes work in the U.S. is bass ackwards. They have all the info. I should be the I.R.S. where they submit a completed form to me for me to audit. I decide to sign it or not and go on with my life for another year. The state taxes are even worse (albeit, that may just be ny's problem).

erur• 12 months ago

This does sound a lot like Washington Monument Syndrome but I’m happy to be corrected

UmGuys• 12 months ago

CPB, Direct File, BLS head all in one day. Lots to sweep under the rug this Friday afternoon. We're spending more for this service incineration. Literally. Tr*mp has increased spending despite all these cuts.

IRS head says free Direct File tax service is 'gone'

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