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Comment by purple_ferret | Hacker News Reader

Here's the tweet that prompted Elon's 'deleted' tweet:

>18F, the far left government wide computer office that was recently taken over by allies of @elonmusk, is also the same agency that built Elizabeth Warren's "Direct File" tax program.

>Direct File puts the government in charge of preparing peoples tax returns for them.

https://nitter.poast.org/alx/status/1886415751528972515?

Clearly, they think there is something malicious in having the federal government manage this service despite the fact that the result gets submitted....to the federal government anyway

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They are terrified of asset taxes and want to keep them as bureaucratically inhibited as possible.

First of all, it's the US Governments, and thus the citizens, Direct File tax program. Unless Elizabeth Warren personally wrote the code I don't think her brand deserves to be on it.

Second, are we pretending it was a good system?

"Direct File is now open and available in 25 participating states." Wow. Half the country! That's _almost_ useful.

"You can't use Direct File if you had other types of income, such as gig economy, rental or business income." Again another baffling miss. Perhaps Senator Warren is willing to explain this personally?

"You can't use Direct File if you itemize deductions." What is even the point? Who would have wasted their time creating this boondoggle?

This is all lipservice. People who want to claim credit for a half working implementation. It's 2025. This is utterly embarrassing to the nation and I can't rightly determine what goes through the minds of Senators. They are so detached from the common American experience.

It's available in only 25 states because the other half decided not to participate. Just another maddening example in the long story of how the American system makes it very hard to Do Good Things for the average citizen.

Direct File is following a phased roll-out approach to avoid the "big launch" problem that tends to plague government tech projects. The goal is to serve all citizens, but taxes are very complex, and it will take time to address all scenarios.

Also, as the below commenter mentioned, states need to agree to be part of Direct File.

I don't get your strong objection. A 1.0 release that is fit for use by >80% of the addressable market, and gets high marks from those users is a "boondoggle"?

Perhaps you overestimate the fraction of taxpayers that itemize deductions, have gig/rental/business income?

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