Washington – The Trump administration plans to delete the IRS direct file program, an electronic system to present tax statements directly to the agency for free, according to two people familiar with the decision.
The program developed the duration of the presidency of Joe Biden was accredited by users by making tax presentation easy, fast and economical. But Republican legislators and commercial taxes preparation complained that it was a loss of taxpayers’ money because there are already free filling programs, although they are difficult to use.
The program had been in Limbo since the beginning of the Trump administration, since Elon Musk and the government’s efficiency department have opened their way through the federal government. Musk published in February on his social media site, X, which had “eliminated” 18F, a government agency that worked in such direct archive technology projects.
There was some hope that Musk, with his team of Duxes Computer Programmers, could take a direct file and improve it. But the two people familiar with the decision to end directly said that their future was clear when IRS staff were told to the program in mid -March to stop working in their development for the 2026 tax presentation season.
The two people were not publicly authorized the plans and spoke with Associated Press about the condition of anonymity.
The Department of the Treasury has not made a decision about the future of the programs, according to an official who was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.
Adam Ruben, vice president of the economic security project of the liberal trend, said that “the solution was from the beginning.”
“It is an outrage to see everyday taxpayers who do not play any role in this decision,” he said. “Reducing costs and saving money for families were only empty campaign promises.”
But David Williams, president of the taxpayer protection alliance, which describes himself as a non -partisan organization that slows down and analysis on the effects of the government on the economy, said the direct archive was “problematic” of the program, bought the finished propagses. According to the IRS 423,450 taxpayers registered in the Direct Archive and 140.803 presented statements accepted in 2024.
“From the hidden costs to the confusion of the taxpayers, the program is full of problems,” said Williams.
The direct file was implemented as a pilot program in 2024 after the IRS had the task of investigating how to create a “direct file” system as part of the money it received from the Inflation Reduction Law signed the Bij Biden Law in 2022. The Democratic Tens program.
Last May, the agency announced that the program would be permanent.
But the IRS has faced an intense setback to direct the archive of private tax preparation companies that have made billions of charging people to use software and have spent millions of lobbying of the congress. The average American generally spends about $ 140 prior to those that every year.
Derrick Plummer, a spokesman for the Commercial Tax Preparation Company, Intuit, “he said in a statement that” the direct file is and has been a solution in search of a problem, a drainage of the critical resources of the IRS and a loss of dollars of the taxpayers. “
The IRS accepted 140,803 statements presented by taxpayers using the direct file in the 12 states where the last tax season was available. It was extended to include half of the country this year. It is not clear how many taxpayers have used the file immediately this year.
Amanda Renteria, CEO of Code for America, who worked with the IRS to create a state tax submission program for direct files, said the decision was “a betrayal of public confidence precisely at the time the government should demonstrate its capacity services.”
Senator Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., A proponent of building a direct file file, said in a statement that Trump and Musk “go after the direct file because it prevents giant taxes for preparation for taxes to scam taxpayers because they will remove it.”