The IRS Tax Filing Software TurboTax Is Trying to Kill Just Got Open Sourced

[highplainsdem]

Source: 404 Media

The IRS open sourced much of its incredibly popular Direct File software as the future of the free tax filing program is at risk of being killed by Intuit’s lobbyists and Donald Trump’s megabill. Meanwhile, several top developers who worked on the software have left the government and joined a project to explore the “future of tax filing” in the private sector.

Direct File is a piece of software created by developers at the US Digital Service and 18F, the former of which became DOGE and is now unrecognizable, and the latter of which was killed by DOGE. Direct File has been called a “free, easy, and trustworthy” piece of software that made tax filing “more efficient.” About 300,000 people used it last year as part of a limited pilot program, and those who did gave it incredibly positive reviews, according to reporting by Federal News Network.

But because it is free and because it is an example of government working, Direct File and the IRS’s Free File program more broadly have been the subject of years of lobbying efforts by financial technology giants like Intuit, which makes TurboTax. DOGE sought to kill Direct File, and currently, there is language in Trump’s massive budget reconciliation bill that would kill Direct File. Experts say that “ending [the] Direct File program is a gift to the tax-prep industry that will cost taxpayers time and money.”

That means it’s quite big news that the IRS released most of the code that runs Direct File on Github last week. And, separately, three people who worked on it—Chris Given, Jen Thomas, Merici Vinton—have left government to join the Economic Security Project’s Future of Tax Filing Fellowship, where they will research ways to make filing taxes easier, cheaper, and more straightforward. They will be joined by Gabriel Zucker, who worked on Direct File as part of Code for America.

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Read more: https://www.404media.co/directfile-open-source-irs-tax-filing-software-turbotax-is-trying-to-kil/

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[AllaN01Bear]

1. interisting. love the original posters handle . 404 media

[ananda]

2. I've used IRS free file for years.

I would hate to lose it.

[Silent Type]

5. Free File will still exist. This is Direct File that started in 2024. It was only available in like 25 states and wasn't

used by very many filers.

[Attilatheblond]

3. It's not just paying a fee to a corporation in order to file that pisses me off

I, and probably millions of others, don't want to hand over our personal info to ANY corporation. The fee isn't big, but the danger of corporations having our data and SS#s? Hard pass on that. They have too much info already.

[IronLionZion]

4. Of course the big beautiful bill wants to kill it

MAGA efficiency means giving lots of money to corporations. They don't want people to get things for free even if it's to simply file their taxes. They want people to pay corporations in order to pay their taxes.

[FakeNoose]

7. "Open source" software does the opposite - they give it away for free

The European programmers are quite good at it, but it goes against the grain for most American companies.

[Wonder Why]

6. I hope it becomes a 501(c)3 project.

Last edited Wed Jun 4, 2025, 09:15 PM - Edit history (1)