Let's make filing your 2026 tax return more difficult and expensive

Investment Analysis Clubs Macro Economic Trends and Risks
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{{ An email sent Monday from IRS official Cynthia Noe to state comptrollers that participate in the Direct File program said that “IRS Direct File will not be available in Filing Season 2026. No launch date has been set for the future.”

The program developed during Joe Biden’s presidency was credited by users with making tax filing easy, fast and economical. However, it faced criticism from Republican lawmakers, who called it a waste of taxpayer money because free filing programs already exist (though they are difficult to use), and from commercial tax preparation companies, which have made billions from charging people to use their software.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, who is also the current IRS commissioner, told reporters at the White House on Wednesday that there are “better alternatives” to Direct File. “It wasn’t used very much,” he said. “And we think that the private sector can do a better job.” }}

Why are they always promoting more “skim,scam and fraud” ?

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Wasn’t used very much?

I think literally everyone I knew filed electronically. Nobody wanted to do forms, and drop them in the mail. Even my elderly mom filed electronically, and she still kept ledgers in book-form.

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Turbo Tax, etc. have free filing services but they make the free version hard to find and direct you to the paid service.

The IRS funded free-efile service didn’t do that.

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I believe various accounting firms and software can still file online.

It’s the new IRS file online system they are discontinuing.

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Why should you have to involve a private entity to file your taxes electronically?

The vast majority of people have very simple taxes.

I have fairly complicated taxes… but I insist on filing paper forms because I find the concept of forcing me to go through a commercial entity just to file electronically to be vile.

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Although lobbying is fierce to increase profits for private tax accountancies, the crux of this is to make certain people hate taxes so as to make it easier to cut taxes on the rich becauseeverybodyhatestaxes.

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I have to agree with the government on this one. Been using the free version of turbo tax for years. No problem . Tried the government version last year, a complete waste .

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H&R Block usually offers their preseason discount on tax software before Thanksgiving.

Haven’t seen it yet. You wonder how changes might affect their service.

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Perhaps, but point being that it was a new experiment offered only in limited states and most people didn’t know about it … think that might have contributed to its not being used much?

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