Trump admin plans to end the IRS Direct File program for free tax filing | Hacker News Reader

Trump admin plans to end the IRS Direct File program for free tax filing

apnews.com

46 pointsbreadwinner20 comments

Over the weekend I helped someone file taxes using http://directfile.irs.gov/

It is very impressive in terms of usability and design.

Musk “deleted” 18F, a government agency that worked on technology projects such as Direct File.

I have a feeling that the current government wants to transfer as much power as possible from the government agencies to private companies.

Intuit spends millions lobbying against simplifying the tax code and against government filing free tax services... while raising the price of their software.

https://www.propublica.org/article/filing-taxes-could-be-fre...

Not surprised that Intuit lobbied hard to kill Direct File as well:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43724267

the team behind that stuff was private company consultants...

Did you mean the Direct File one?

yes

Oh I see, looks like a complicated scheme than I thought...thanks!

No it was the team known as 18F that Elon Musk "deleted".

https://apnews.com/article/irs-direct-file-musk-18f-6a4dc35a...

Excerpt: Billionaire tech mogul Elon Musk posted Monday on his social media site that he had “deleted” 18F, a government agency that worked on technology projects such as the IRS’ Direct File program.

it was a govt agency full of contracting companies/workers... I've worked with them for quite some time directly in fact for many years, so excuse me when i don't believe you when you say 'no'. Just because its a govt agency doesn't mean they are govt employees

18F was entirely federal employees.

I think the current regime just hates the idea of the US government and wants to destroy it as thoroughly as possible. If that results in transfer of power to private businesses or foreign countries, that's just a fun side effect for them.

They violently oppose pretty much everything laid out in the preamble to the Constitution.

“Justice? Tranquility? Welfare? All this, and a union? Absolutely not!”

This seems like too needlessly complex of an explanation. This administration doesn't even seem like it cares about private companies.

The only consistent theme of this administration is it simply doesn't like nice things. It is looking for new and interesting ways to be cruel. And that's explanation enough for its motivations.

It's cartoonishly easy to figure out what they want to destroy and what they want to keep.

If it's something that benefits ordinary people, they want it dead and buried. If it's something that benefits large corporations or the very wealthy, they want it to thrive.

I wonder if they're gonna get rid of the 1040-EZ forms, too. Wouldn't want to let a loophole as juicy as that stay around when you could force everyone to use TurboTax or Intuit.

They got rid of 1040-EZ in 2018.

The only ideological rationale I've seen for this is that if the government offers a (free) tool like this, it would mean that the government also has the incentive to make the user pay more taxes - and thus, the tool must be worse for the tax payer. The whole argument rests on the gov. wanting to maximize tax income.

Whereas commercial vendors like TurboTax etc. would be incentivized to minimize taxes for the user, and thus provide a better service for the tax payer...even though it will cost something.

That is, of course, if you view the world through a right-wing or libertarian lens, where it is assumed that tax is theft, and that the government is stealing from you. This is what the conservative shills are parroting.

For fucks sake, what even is populism if not this?

> Not long ago, Kansas would have responded to the current situation by making the bastards pay. This would have been a political certainty, as predictable as what happens when you touch a match to a puddle of gasoline. When business screwed the farmers and the workers – when it implemented monopoly strategies invasive beyond the Populists' furthest imaginings – when it ripped off shareholders and casually tossed thousands out of work – you could be damned sure about what would follow. Not these days. Out here the gravity of discontent pulls in only one direction: to the right, to the right, further to the right. Strip today's Kansans of their job security, and they head out to become registered Republicans. Push them off their land, and next thing you know they're protesting in front of abortion clinics. Squander their life savings on manicures for the CEO, and there's a good chance they'll join the John Birch Society. But ask them about the remedies their ancestors proposed (unions, antitrust, public ownership), and you might as well be referring to the days when knighthood was in flower.

"What's the Matter with Kansas?"

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