4 ms·

That is sufficiently dumb that I can only hope you're wrong. Any chance you have the relevant text?

nsriv 1y ago
https://apnews.com/article/irs-direct-file-tax-returns-free-trump-4bb0bca02fab9b3d06ae6f45ac67b7ab https://apnews.com/article/irs-direct-file-tax-returns-free-...
zerocrates 1y ago
SEC. 112207. TASK FORCE ON THE TERMINATION OF DIRECT FILE. (a) Termination of Direct File.—As soon as practicable, and not later than 30 days after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary of the Treasury shall ensure that the Internal Revenue Service Direct File program has been terminated.
- Nifty3929 1y ago
  Thanks, and wow.
unsnap_biceps 1y ago
It's a dead program walking right now anyway, regardless of the budgeting. > The program had been in limbo since the start of the Trump administration as Elon Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency have slashed their way through the federal government. Musk posted in February on his social media site, X, that he had “deleted” 18F, a government agency that worked on technology projects such as Direct File. > There was some hope that Musk, with his DOGE team of computer programmers, could take over Direct File and improve it. But the two people familiar with the decision to end Direct File said its future became clear when the IRS staff assigned to the program were told in mid-March to stop working on its development for the 2026 tax filing season. https://apnews.com/article/irs-direct-file-tax-returns-free-trump-4bb0bca02fab9b3d06ae6f45ac67b7ab https://apnews.com/article/irs-direct-file-tax-returns-free-...
wredcoll 1y ago
Just to add some context, there is right now two similarly named systems: E-file: which is essentially just an api end point for accepting digitized tax returns and is what all the major (paid) tax software uses. Direct file: a web based version of the 1040 irs forms which will, when filled out, submit the forms electronically. === Edit: there are actually three, the third is Free Fillable Forms, which is what I'm actually talking about here === Note that when I say "version of the forms" I mean that quite literally. The interface is as close as html can come to looking like a printed 1040 form and about 1 tiny step up from filling out a pdf version. The forms will occasionally do math for you: some of the fields are marked as the sum of a set of fields and those will automatically do the addition for you, but that's the limit of the automation. For example, to compute your actual owed taxes you need a percentage to multiply by your taxable income, and that number is found by looking through a roughly 10 page table that maps income ranges in brackets of $50 to a specific number (so 0-50 is one number, 50-100 is another, and so on up to several hundred thousand). To get this number for the form you, of course, must open the help documentation in a separate tab and scan through it looking for your bracket. My understanding as to why it works this way is that the irs is basically doing as much as they're legally allowed to. The irs is, as far as i know, forbidden by law, from developing any kind of software that helps you file taxes (or more accurately, competes with turbotax) and this web-form doesn't quite count as breaking that law. I'll note in passing, that as a general rule "both sides" tend to take turbotax money to hobble the irs, this specific direct file was championed and funded by democrats, opposed by republicans and the republican president trump is trying to delete it.
- wredcoll 1y ago
  Just for everyone's amusement, here's one of the emails I got when I made an error filling out the forms last year: ------ Dear Free File Fillable Forms Taxpayer: Your 2023 federal tax return has been rejected due to the error(s) listed below. Your Submission ID is: 44011101892 Get help resolving your errors by using the Error Search Tool at https://www.irs.gov/filing/individuals/free-file-fillable-forms/search-tip https://www.irs.gov/filing/individuals/free-file-fillable-fo... You must follow the search instructions to find solutions When you have your solution(s), sign in to your Free File Fillable Forms account at https://www.freefilefillableforms.com https://www.freefilefillableforms.com Fix your error(s) and resubmit your return. Be sure to re-enter the direct debit date (if used) and the e-file date in the Step 2 tab of Free File Fillable Forms. If you are unable to resolve the error(s), you can mail your tax return and your payment by April 18, 2023 to avoid penalties and interest. Here is your error(s): Issue : Business Rule X0000-005 - The XML data has failed schema validation. cvc-pattern-valid. Value `` is not facet-valid with respect to pattern `[0-9]{9}` for type `EINType`. The following information may help you determine the form at issue: Field/Xpath: /efile:Return[1]/efile:ReturnData[1]/efile:IRSW2[2]/efile:EmployerEIN[1]

https://apnews.com/article/irs-direct-file-tax-returns-free-trump-4bb0bca02fab9b3d06ae6f45ac67b7ab https://apnews.com/article/irs-direct-file-tax-returns-free-...

zerocrates 1y ago

SEC. 112207. TASK FORCE ON THE TERMINATION OF DIRECT FILE. (a) Termination of Direct File.—As soon as practicable, and not later than 30 days after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary of the Treasury shall ensure that the Internal Revenue Service Direct File program has been terminated.

Nifty3929 1y ago
Thanks, and wow.

unsnap_biceps 1y ago

It's a dead program walking right now anyway, regardless of the budgeting. > The program had been in limbo since the start of the Trump administration as Elon Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency have slashed their way through the federal government. Musk posted in February on his social media site, X, that he had “deleted” 18F, a government agency that worked on technology projects such as Direct File. > There was some hope that Musk, with his DOGE team of computer programmers, could take over Direct File and improve it. But the two people familiar with the decision to end Direct File said its future became clear when the IRS staff assigned to the program were told in mid-March to stop working on its development for the 2026 tax filing season. https://apnews.com/article/irs-direct-file-tax-returns-free-trump-4bb0bca02fab9b3d06ae6f45ac67b7ab https://apnews.com/article/irs-direct-file-tax-returns-free-...

wredcoll 1y ago

Just to add some context, there is right now two similarly named systems: E-file: which is essentially just an api end point for accepting digitized tax returns and is what all the major (paid) tax software uses. Direct file: a web based version of the 1040 irs forms which will, when filled out, submit the forms electronically. === Edit: there are actually three, the third is Free Fillable Forms, which is what I'm actually talking about here === Note that when I say "version of the forms" I mean that quite literally. The interface is as close as html can come to looking like a printed 1040 form and about 1 tiny step up from filling out a pdf version. The forms will occasionally do math for you: some of the fields are marked as the sum of a set of fields and those will automatically do the addition for you, but that's the limit of the automation. For example, to compute your actual owed taxes you need a percentage to multiply by your taxable income, and that number is found by looking through a roughly 10 page table that maps income ranges in brackets of $50 to a specific number (so 0-50 is one number, 50-100 is another, and so on up to several hundred thousand). To get this number for the form you, of course, must open the help documentation in a separate tab and scan through it looking for your bracket. My understanding as to why it works this way is that the irs is basically doing as much as they're legally allowed to. The irs is, as far as i know, forbidden by law, from developing any kind of software that helps you file taxes (or more accurately, competes with turbotax) and this web-form doesn't quite count as breaking that law. I'll note in passing, that as a general rule "both sides" tend to take turbotax money to hobble the irs, this specific direct file was championed and funded by democrats, opposed by republicans and the republican president trump is trying to delete it.

wredcoll 1y ago
Just for everyone's amusement, here's one of the emails I got when I made an error filling out the forms last year: ------ Dear Free File Fillable Forms Taxpayer: Your 2023 federal tax return has been rejected due to the error(s) listed below. Your Submission ID is: 44011101892 Get help resolving your errors by using the Error Search Tool at https://www.irs.gov/filing/individuals/free-file-fillable-forms/search-tip https://www.irs.gov/filing/individuals/free-file-fillable-fo... You must follow the search instructions to find solutions When you have your solution(s), sign in to your Free File Fillable Forms account at https://www.freefilefillableforms.com https://www.freefilefillableforms.com Fix your error(s) and resubmit your return. Be sure to re-enter the direct debit date (if used) and the e-file date in the Step 2 tab of Free File Fillable Forms. If you are unable to resolve the error(s), you can mail your tax return and your payment by April 18, 2023 to avoid penalties and interest. Here is your error(s): Issue : Business Rule X0000-005 - The XML data has failed schema validation. cvc-pattern-valid. Value `` is not facet-valid with respect to pattern `[0-9]{9}` for type `EINType`. The following information may help you determine the form at issue: Field/Xpath: /efile:Return[1]/efile:ReturnData[1]/efile:IRSW2[2]/efile:EmployerEIN[1]