WASHINGTON (AP) – MIA Francis, a 22 -year -old barista from Boston, tabled his taxes for the first time this year, using a free government income declaration program that facilitated the task because she did most of the work for her.
Francis said it had to take 45 minutes to finish his taxes with the IRS Direct File program, a system for filing an electronic income declarations that IRS made permanent last year and which was deployed in 25 states.
Francis expects a reimbursement of $ 530. And because she saved money by not using a business tax preparation company to table her taxes, “this money will go very far,” she said. She plans to use it for a trip to Amsterdam this year.
Despite its popularity with Francis and other members of the American public, the fate of the IRS Direct File remains uncertain because Elon Musk and the Ministry of Effectiveness of the Government make its way through the Federal Bureaucracy. Until now, the program has always been available for use before the deadline for declaring income on April 15, and the Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent is committed during his January confirmation hearing to maintain it, at least for this tax season.
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The representatives of the Internal Revenue Service and Doge did not respond to requests for comments from the Associated Press on their direct file plans. But a republican tax expert said that IRS have never obtained authorization from Congress to create a direct file. And republican legislators and commercial tax preparation companies complain that the program is a waste of money because free deposit programs already exist, although they are difficult to use.
The direct file was deployed as a pilot program in 2024 after the IRS was responsible for looking for how to create a “direct file” system as part of the money it received from the inflation reduction law signed by President Joe Biden in 2022. Last May, the agency announced that the program would be made permanent.
The IRS accepted 140,803 declarations filed by taxpayers using a direct file in the 12 states where it was available in the last tax season. It was extended to include half of the country this year. We do not know how many taxpayers have used the direct file this year.
Merici Vinton, an original architect of the direct file of the American digital service, noted the ease and accessibility of the program and described it as “an excellent example of the way people should interact with the government in the 21st century”.
“We have effectively launched a startup in the IRS,” she said. “It was built by a team of internal products, in an iterative manner, and we send the software updates to improve the user experience in real time depending on the comments. If we continue to invest, taxpayers and IRS can benefit from it. »»
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Musk published last month on his social media site which he had “deleted” 18F, a government agency that worked on technological projects such as the IRS direct file program. This has led to a certain confusion as to whether the direct file is always available for taxpayers. However, conversations inside the IRS indicate that no decision has been made on the advisability of reducing the program, two people familiar with these conversations say the AP.
Former IRS commissioner Daniel Werfel, who supervised the deployment of the program, said that treasure officials considering the future of the program should take into account “the voice of taxpayers”.
“My reflection is that taxpayers are in very different situations and have very different preferences on how they want to deposit,” he said. “Those whose preference is to deposit electronically directly with IRS for free are a good option to have on the menu. But it should not replace other options.”
Derrick Plummer, spokesperson for Intuit, one of the largest business tax preparation companies in the country, said that free tax preparation was available for years before the arrival of the direct file.
“The IRS Direct file is a solution looking for a problem, a waste of dollars of taxpayers and a drain on Critical Resources of the IRS,” he said. A report of June 2024 Inspector General for the Tax Administration estimates that the annual costs of the direct file may vary from $ 64 million to $ 249 million.
“The IRS should focus on its main mission, including data confidentiality and customer service while Washington political decision -makers focus on simplifying the tax code,” said Plummer.
However, other taxpayers, such as Aquiel Warner, 31 to Austin, Texas, say they want to avoid using commercial tax preparation software.
Warner tabled his taxes with a direct file in 10 minutes using his phone and a chatbot provided by the IRS. She likes the convenience of the program, that he prepared his tax forms and that he allowed a free deposit. Although she has concerns about data confidentiality within the government – DOGE would have access to some of the internal systems of the IRS – she feels more sure to go through the IRS than the commercial tax preparation services.
“I don’t want to be a product. I don’t want my information to be sold when I put my taxes, “she said.” I have to deposit my taxes, and I do not want to be put in a situation where, to deposit my taxes, I have to pay to get the help I need because I am not a professional income trainer. “”
Grover Norquist, president of the Americans for tax reform, said that IRS had never obtained explicit permission from the congress to create the direct file system.
“No matter if it’s a good idea. This has been done illegally, “he said, calling on Congress and the Ministry of Justice to examine what he says is unauthorized expenses that have been devoted to the creation of a direct file.
Democratic legislators in January asked the candidate of the IRS commissioner to Bessent and the IRS commissioner to preserve the program. They wrote in a letter that “the end of direct files would harm the Americans every day”. Long has not yet received an appointment audience.
In the meantime, Musk and its framework for IT programmers could decide to handle their technological skills to increase the program – or use the same digital opinion to delete it.
For its part, Werfel hopes that the agency will keep the program. “It is a big country with many taxpayers with a lot of different preferences,” he said.
Francis, the Boston Barista, also hopes.
“There are many young people like me who work and discover how to deposit their taxes-it makes it faster and easier,” she said.
