Rep. Gerry Connolly has one conclusion in response to the “ridiculous” news that more than 20 U.S. House Republicans are calling on President-elect Donald Trump to end the Internal Revenue Service’s Direct File program. reached. “The Republican Party wants to enrich everyone’s lives.” It’s difficult. “
Virginia Democrats were not alone in condemning the letter written by Rep. Adrian Smith (R-Neb.) and Rep. Chuck Edwards (R-Neb.) and signed by at least 27 other Republicans. An executive order ends a free tax filing program that saved about 140,000 taxpayers an estimated $5.6 million in filing costs this year.
Direct File was introduced as a pilot program in 12 states last tax filing season and is expected to expand to 24 states and more than 30 million eligible taxpayers this year, offering “an easy way for people to file their taxes.” It’s a free and easy way. Pay your taxes online directly with the IRS,” said Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.).
The senator said the software allows taxpayers to keep their full tax refunds “instead of paying $150 to a sleazy tax preparation company,” and Republicans are clearly pushing back on Americans’ ability to use the popular tax preparation service run by Intuit. He added that he wants to “keep wasting money on TurboTax” tax filing programs. , reported net income of $2 billion in 2023, and spent $3.5 million on federal lobbying the previous year. The private tax filing industry has spent decades lobbying to keep systems like Direct File from being used by Americans.
In the letter, Republicans said the Direct File System is “unauthorized and wasteful” and that “the program’s creation and ongoing expansion pose a threat to taxpayer freedom from government overreach.” claims.
Republican lawmakers also sent letters to billionaire businessmen Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, Trump’s proposed top candidates for the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
In the letter, they claim they want to protect “hardworking Americans” from IRS “overreach,” but Donald Cohen, founder and executive director of In the Public Interest, said Wednesday that As he told Common Dreams, the Direct File program is “incredibly popular” with many people. People who have used it.
“This is the most efficient and cost-effective way for millions of people to pay their taxes,” Cohen said. “So what Republicans want to do is make it more costly, more complex and more profitable for the big tax software vendors.”
Mr. Cohen also questioned how Mr. Smith and Mr. Edwards could claim that Direct File was a “clear conflict of interest,” as they allege in their letter.
“It is in our interest for the federal government to collect taxes in the most efficient and cheapest way,” he told Common Dreams.
On the contrary, he said, private tax software companies like Intuit and H&R Block are incentivized to fight Direct File, which costs them about $1 billion in filing fees and prevents them from collecting user data.
Chuck Maher, vice president for tax policy at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, said Republicans who signed Wednesday’s letter are essentially pushing for a “tax on taxes.”
Ernie Tedeschi, director of economics at the Yale Budget Institute and former chief economist at the White House Council of Economic Advisers, said direct files “do what policymakers should support; “It will make government functions more efficient and available to users.” Make it accessible and friendly to everyone. ”
