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140,803 taxpayers used it in 2024. "Of the $13.0 million spent on pilot development and implementation, $10.6 million is technology and product development cos

140,803 taxpayers used it in 2024. "Of the $13.0 million spent on pilot development and implementation, $10.6 million is technology and product development costs and $2.4 million is operational costs (customer service, cloud computing, user authentication, etc.)" "Nearly half of Direct File users reported paying for tax preparation last year, and the Treasury Department estimates that Direct File users saved $5.6 million in tax preparation fees" https://www.gao.gov/products/gao-24-107236 https://www.gao.gov/products/gao-24-107236 https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p5969.pdf https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p5969.pdf edit: this comment had a much different estimate earlier based on a less specific source

toomuchtodo 2y ago
It should be expected that the government has a cost to provide for citizens to meet their tax obligations easily, efficiently, and without a private party involved or necessary. https://bsky.app/profile/vermontgmg.bsky.social/post/3lhcg2biqzc2m https://bsky.app/profile/vermontgmg.bsky.social/post/3lhcg2b... > Not for nothing, but Direct File by the IRS was one of the best things the USG has done in years — it allowed millions of Americans to stop paying predatory fees to TurboTax. The literal only people who oppose it are TurboTax lobbyists.
orionsbelt 2y ago
I think Direct File is great, but where is the $200 assumption coming from? A lot of the people using direct file (which is quite basic) were probably using free filing solutions or ones much less than $200.
- johnneville 2y ago
  thanks for the reply. the $200 is a rounding down from $220 for the average fee cost for a 1040 in 2021 according to the national society of accountants. the second link in my earlier comment provides much more direct data, estimating $5.6 million in tax preparation fees saved compared to operation costs of $2.4 million. i've updated my original comment now to remove my personal estimate. $220 source: https://higherlogicdownload.s3.amazonaws.com/NSACCT/725010a8-142f-4092-8b5d-077c2618c728/UploadedImages/Membership/IncomeandFeeSurvey/NSA2020-2021_IncomeandFees_FullStudy.pdf https://higherlogicdownload.s3.amazonaws.com/NSACCT/725010a8...
tommiegannert 2y ago
Hmm. $13M is three minutes of additional US money printing. https://budget.house.gov/press-release/us-national-debt-surpasses-35-trillion https://budget.house.gov/press-release/us-national-debt-surp...
watusername 2y ago
Not really familiar with costs at this scale, I'm interested to see HN's take on whether this is considered cheap or expensive compared to other federal projects (both contracted and in-house). My naive view is that this was a genuinely useful effort being wasted and an operational cost of $2.4M _looks_ like a steal, but would appreciate better comparison from people more informed than me.
yencabulator 2y ago
And you have to remember it was only starting to ramp up. The cost per taxpayer would be expected to go down as the program moved from development & scale-up to being the standard solution.

toomuchtodo 2y ago

It should be expected that the government has a cost to provide for citizens to meet their tax obligations easily, efficiently, and without a private party involved or necessary. https://bsky.app/profile/vermontgmg.bsky.social/post/3lhcg2biqzc2m https://bsky.app/profile/vermontgmg.bsky.social/post/3lhcg2b... > Not for nothing, but Direct File by the IRS was one of the best things the USG has done in years — it allowed millions of Americans to stop paying predatory fees to TurboTax. The literal only people who oppose it are TurboTax lobbyists.

orionsbelt 2y ago

I think Direct File is great, but where is the $200 assumption coming from? A lot of the people using direct file (which is quite basic) were probably using free filing solutions or ones much less than $200.

johnneville 2y ago
thanks for the reply. the $200 is a rounding down from $220 for the average fee cost for a 1040 in 2021 according to the national society of accountants. the second link in my earlier comment provides much more direct data, estimating $5.6 million in tax preparation fees saved compared to operation costs of $2.4 million. i've updated my original comment now to remove my personal estimate. $220 source: https://higherlogicdownload.s3.amazonaws.com/NSACCT/725010a8-142f-4092-8b5d-077c2618c728/UploadedImages/Membership/IncomeandFeeSurvey/NSA2020-2021_IncomeandFees_FullStudy.pdf https://higherlogicdownload.s3.amazonaws.com/NSACCT/725010a8...

tommiegannert 2y ago

Hmm. $13M is three minutes of additional US money printing. https://budget.house.gov/press-release/us-national-debt-surpasses-35-trillion https://budget.house.gov/press-release/us-national-debt-surp...

watusername 2y ago

Not really familiar with costs at this scale, I'm interested to see HN's take on whether this is considered cheap or expensive compared to other federal projects (both contracted and in-house). My naive view is that this was a genuinely useful effort being wasted and an operational cost of $2.4M _looks_ like a steal, but would appreciate better comparison from people more informed than me.

yencabulator 2y ago

And you have to remember it was only starting to ramp up. The cost per taxpayer would be expected to go down as the program moved from development & scale-up to being the standard solution.