I think your comment completely misses the target of the Bill. From the staff report linked in the article: " “During the term of this agreement,” the contrac

I think your comment completely misses the target of the Bill. From the staff report linked in the article: " “During the term of this agreement,” the contract read, “the IRS will not compete with the Consortium in providing free, on-line tax return preparation and filing services to taxpayers.”10 The IRS would reaffirm its pledge to avoid developing tax preparation services in the 2005, 2009, 2014, and 2015 Free File renewal agreements.1 ... Today, fewer than 3% of eligible taxpayers participate in Free File, in large part because the program’s maze of eligibility requirements and product offerings are so difficult to navigate." The problem being targeted is the backdoor deal where private companies (TurboTax) _prevent_ the IRS from providing free filing services. They then turn around and obscure features and promote their paid services so that less than 3% of Americans who could and should use the "Free" tier end up paying for the paid product anyway. This legislation is two parts: First, it requires the IRS to develop free filing services to allow Americans to file taxes without having to use third-party services. This is to reduce the requirement that Americans have to share their personal information with third-party corporations in order to pay their _Federal_ taxes. It will also bring some much needed competition to the market where products like TurboTax can't just lock features required by certain users behind paywalls by creating a Federal, free base-line. Second, it _explicitly_ prohibits the IRS from entering into agreements with corporations which restrict itself from providing goods and services (specifically, "provide free online tax preparation or filing services"). The fact that corporations were able to do so in the past is disturbing, so this is a much needed change. The IRS is a governmental body for the people, it shouldn't be entering into agreements that benefit corporations and place burdens on the governed. Tax code is still going to be a mess, especially for the more complicated cases, but this has nothing to do with the focus of this bill.