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IRS Direct File on GitHub

744 points by nickthegreek 1y ago

https://github.com/IRS-Public/direct-file https://github.com/IRS-Public/direct-file

hydrogen7800 1y ago
I figure that the source code is not the hard part of the IRS making this available to the public, but the interoperability with the revenue system, and its verified adherence to the current tax code. Couldn't those things still be killed by the administration even if the source code is available publicly?
- xhevahir 1y ago
  Right, politicians and officials working on behalf of the tax-filing lobby could introduce lots of changes to the tax code with a view to making this software useless.
  - glookler 1y ago
    The point of open sourcing from a dying ship is that the groups that can modify this software and resell it all start from it as a baseline. Is TurboTax all lean mean code available at a low enough price while still meeting profit expectations if it needs drastic changes?
    - bee_rider 1y ago
      I mean… in some sense, it might be nice is the company doing your tax preparation is not too lean and mean, their whole point is to eat the hit if they screw it up, right? The math is not actually hard. But, realistically, I guess if a self-service tax prep company messed up your taxes, they’d make sure you end up in arbitration.
      - yencabulator 1y ago
        The form you sign to authorize efiling says "I declare that I have examined a copy of the income tax return ... and to the best of my knowledge and belief, it is true, correct, and complete." If you think Intuit is going to cover you, you haven't really seen the things they do.
    - mrguyorama 1y ago
      What is this repo's marketing budget by any chance? Intuit's was big enough to pervert American tax policy for decades.
      - glookler 1y ago
        Intuit can spend all the money they can convince investors to lose relative to last year and expectations, but they'll have a yggdrasil of companies to buy out from a turn-key solution and all their costs fighting OMB will amount to nothing if they screw one buyout up and get an updated software drop for a new round of $5 filers. The companies Intuit will have to buy out don't have to make any profit per filer, they just have to take filers away from Inuit.
- BryantD 1y ago
  Yeah, absolutely. FWIW, the repo notes: "Direct File interprets the United States' Internal Revenue Code (26 USC) as plain language questions, the answers to which should be known to taxpayers without need of external instructions or publications. Taxpayers' answers are then translated into standard tax forms and transmitted to the IRS's Modernized e-File (MeF) API, which is available for authorized public use." So in theory it's useful now, but as you say it could easily change.
  - kevin_thibedeau 1y ago
    The tax code is riddled with euphemisms like EITC that don't mean what it says on the tin. There's no way normies can manage that without instructions.
    - kccqzy 1y ago
      I thought OP's point is that normies who have no idea what EITC is can simply answer a series of simpler questions that don't mention EITC, and the software figures out whether they can claim the EITC.
    - deleted 1y ago
      [deleted]
    - gleenn 1y ago
      Yes but there are plenty of companies or people that may want to know how the code works and would be motivated enough to read through the code to understand it and having it there in the public makes that possible.
    - jandrese 1y ago
      There are also ambiguous edge cases that can't be answered until someone is audited and the IRS and the Tax attorney hash it out in court. For example I installed Solar panels many years ago and read the exact wording on the Solar Tax Credit to try to figure out if you could include roof repairs under the panels in the credit. The wording was something like "all costs associated with a solar install". Every installer I talked to said yes, but it seemed dubious so I tried calling the IRS help line to get the answer and the help line was no help at all. A few years later and some court battles lost and that answer is now firmly a "no", making me glad I ignored the installer's advice. How is tax prep software supposed to handle a situation like that? Some of the for pay options include "audit protection", but I don't know how far that goes. I guess you can attempt to pass all liability on to the customer, but even that seems a bit risky. And definitely the IRS has its own jargon that doesn't always make sense to the layperson. Why, for example, is a form that you fill out once per tax year called a "schedule"? It doesn't organize anything by date or time!
- HPsquared 1y ago
  Sounds like a business opportunity.
  - nitwit005 1y ago
    The whole point of the program was to eliminate that business opportunity.
    - gowld 1y ago
      Why? What's wrong with people getting paid to improve upon the government's work?
      - braebo 1y ago
        Nothing but that’s not what was happening.
      - acdha 1y ago
        The idea is that normal people shouldn’t have to pay to do something the government requires everyone to do. I’ve heard multiple non-Americans express amazement that people with simple jobs have to do anything other than confirm or perhaps update the data which the tax collectors already have because they weren’t thinking of it from the perspective of being a useful marketing tool for fearmongering about the government.
        tombert 1y ago
        I have told this story before here, but it's relevant. In 2021, I filed my 2020 taxes, and a few months later I get a letter from the IRS saying that I owed $8000 because I forgot to report a large stock transaction. I owed $7000 + a $1000 fine. I wasn't mad at all about the $7000, I definitely owed that and it was just an oversight on my end, these things happen, and I was able to get the fine lowered by calling the IRS [1], so that wasn't a huge deal . What did annoy me was why do I have to do anything? If the IRS knows about the transaction and is able to complain about me not paying enough, that suggests that they already have the information that I'm sending them. Why make me buy software and copy information from a piece of paper into that software, just for the IRS to check it against the numbers that they already have? I understand that you might need to issue corrections, and maybe the software should exist for something like that, but it doesn't seem like it should exist otherwise. [1] Who at least in my case was actually really polite and helpful! I had heard horror stories but that was definitely not the case for me. The people I talked to were very sympathetic and nice.
- fitsumbelay 1y ago
  Piggybacking, I think the "hard part" also includes the decades of success that the tax prep lobby's had in protecting its business interests at the cost of US citizen's welfare. Although the number of states that provide free direct filing has grown from last year -- which I only remember to be substantially less than the 25 who do so today -- it's unclear what the problem is with the remaining 25 including DC where I live
- freeone3000 1y ago
  I do not know of this capability currently, but if it has enough for eFile, it can also be used to generate a paper return.
  - yencabulator 1y ago
    For years prior to last good commit. The rules change every year.
- mystified5016 1y ago
  I wouldn't say interop is a huge deal, the main time and cost sink is translating the recursive Gordian knots of tax law into a logically cohesive structure that can be evaluated programmatically. And then you (ideally) must prove its correctness. Imagine pair programming with a tax lawyer. I'd rather eat my own hands.
  - rsti0000 1y ago
    DirectFile wasn’t meant to handle complicated edge cases. Most filers have a w2 and a few 1099s, use the standard deduction, and claim a few common credits (e.g., child and earned-income). They could file for free in a few minutes with directfile.
- NoahZuniga 1y ago
  > Taxpayers' answers are then translated into standard tax forms and transmitted to the IRS's Modernized e-File (MeF) API, which is available for authorized public use The interoperability with the revenue system is provided by a different project, and this API is also used by turbotax and the like. It won't be going away. The interoperability is not the hard part.
  - b112 1y ago
    It could easily go away, if there are claims of people abusing the API, or using "unlicensed software to use the API" causing errors. By licensed, I mean "approved to use the API". There could also be pushes to monetize the API, "Why is this service free!?". Meaning they'd likely require a need to be incorporated, setup a commercial account with them, and have payment method on file, and on and on. My point is, I can think of dozens of sneaky ways to make that pesky API go away, and I'm not even trying.
    - NoahZuniga 1y ago
      What I'm getting at is that the interoperability is not the hard part of this project.
      - yencabulator 1y ago
        You're confusing technical ease with political desirability.
        NoahZuniga 1y ago
        No, just that this interoperability already exists, and is not a hard part for this project.
- sowbug 1y ago
  Imagine this source code becoming the unit tests for the legal code. Future tax-code changes would be accompanied by corresponding changes in GitHub. Inconsistencies would surface as new code and tests break the old ones. As courts introduce new nuances to the law's interpretation, new unit tests would follow. This wouldn't replace human judgment; nobody in power would allow that. But even the capriciousness of politics can be expressed as Boolean logic (var isDeductible = taxpayerIsMe && !taxpayerIsYou). The tests could at least memorialize all the pork.
  - naikrovek 1y ago
    good luck with that; interpretation make things like this very difficult, if not impossible. I agree that this would be nice, however. as a non-lawyer and someone who considers themself to be not a "real" developer (even though I write software every day) I have often wondered how alike law and code are, really, when it comes to defining intent via a keyboard.
    - robertlagrant 1y ago
      I would prefer it if any change to the IRS rules must be accompanied by a reference implementation and lots of tests.
      - ted_dunning 1y ago
        Tell me how you will write a unit test for determining the percentage of your utilities that is deductible on Schedule C. Or a unit test that determines whether the discussion during a meal with a customer was "substantially about business matters".
        yencabulator 1y ago
        What percentage of US citizens expense business meals? This is all about automating the simple cases. Anything more complex is an input to the system, the system can still be tested.
        1y ago
zb3 1y ago
https://github.com/IRS-Public/direct-file https://github.com/IRS-Public/direct-file
jmisavage 1y ago
Found the repo over here if anyone is curious. https://github.com/IRS-Public/direct-file https://github.com/IRS-Public/direct-file
- anigbrowl 1y ago
  [flagged]
  - dylan604 1y ago
    This is a service. What happens if some ideologue turns off whatever is listening on the government's end? Unless this forked version will then print out a bunch of forms for someone to physically mail in, owning this software without being able to communicate to a digital host is useless.
    - BHSPitMonkey 1y ago
      > Unless this forked version will then print out a bunch of forms for someone to physically mail in Well yes, this is in essence what tax return preparation software has always been; The end result is a completed set of values to fill into the boxes of form 1040 (and whatever additional forms are deemed to be required), which can then be filed electronically or written/printed on paper to be returned at an office or by mail.
      - letters90 1y ago
        Not in other countries besides the US. Haven't seen a printout since I started doing taxes.
    - rsti0000 1y ago
      The IRS accepts efilings in a prescribed format so that isnt a danger. If you look at a tax transcript produced from efiling vs a paper return, there is no material difference besides the fields related to how they were submitted.
deleted 1y ago
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skrebbel 1y ago
Wow public domain license! Smart move, I assume those disgruntled devs who "joined a project to explore the “future of tax filing” in the private sector" can now easily fork it and compete with TurboTax directly (with, I hope, a much better product at a lower price). Normally that'd feel a bit scummy but in this case I can't fault them for it. Here's to hoping they can outcompete TurboTax so brutally that Intuit won't be able to pay for all those lobbyists anymore.
- Rebelgecko 1y ago
  IIRC public domain is actually the "default" for code released by the government
  - haiku2077 1y ago
    Yes, works of the US Federal Government are public domain. It gets complicated when state governments, contractors, etc. are involved, but Direct File was in-house work by USDS/18F.
  - kj4ips 1y ago
    Yep, one of the more popular FOSS CNC controllers (LinuxCNC) draws its heritage from a NIST project, and at least one major manufacturer ships a variant of it in their machines.
- AStonesThrow 1y ago
  Although it is written in the "LICENSE" file for purposes of uniformity and GitHub compatibility, a dedication to the Public Domain is not a "license". As you can see, they waive all their rights to claim copyright protection, and therefore, no license is possible; no license is necessary to use it for any purpose. And yes, "As a work of the US Government" it is dedicated to the Public Domain by law.
- gowld 1y ago
  TurboTax already has competitors.
- BHSPitMonkey 1y ago
deleted 1y ago
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pimlottc 1y ago
Here's the announcement from one of the principal engineers: https://chrisgiven.com/2025/05/direct-file-on-github/ https://chrisgiven.com/2025/05/direct-file-on-github/
- dang 1y ago
  Thanks - I've changed the URL to that from https://www.404media.co/directfile-open-source-irs-tax-filing-software-turbotax-is-trying-to-kil/ https://www.404media.co/directfile-open-source-irs-tax-filin... above, since the latter continues to be signup-walled.
  - no-reply 1y ago
    If anybody wants to read the 404 article - https://archive.is/U6j4b https://archive.is/U6j4b
    - rsingel 1y ago
      You could also just sign up and read it on their site, and consider subscribing. Journalism is labor
      - 90s_dev 1y ago
        The ad model won.
      - joshmanders 1y ago
        I'd agree typically but paywalling open source government software just to talk about it is wild behavior.
        cAtte_ 1y ago
        how is the software being paywalled here?
        1y ago
dustbunny 1y ago
[flagged]
- mig39 1y ago
  Even easier if your employer automatically syncs with CRA. No filling in forms at all. In other countries, the government does the taxes for you, and sends you a pre-filled form that you can amend or change.
  - dustbunny 1y ago
    yeah employer has always synced, so it (wealth simple) autofills basically everything. then i just add my family specific stuff
- tannschnauzer 1y ago
  [dead]
- xmprt 1y ago
  just want to chime in to say that it's around that fast in the US as well Most people will just have to enter their W2, choose the standard deduction, and then click submit. There are free tools that do this already like FreeTaxUSA. That said, I have 2 gripes with the current system: 1. companies like TurboTax lobbying to prevent the government from building their own tool... if TurboTax is genuinely better then people will still use it even if the govt builds a tool. 2. the tax code being so complex that it's profitable for wealthy people to avoid taxes with special deductions and hire lawyers to defend them from the overstretched IRS.
  - supplied_demand 1y ago
    == it's around that fast in the US as well== Do you have a source for this claim, because I found this: ==Individual income tax return filing is the most time-consuming element of the tax system, with the average taxpayer spending 13 hours to comply with the Form 1040. For individuals with business income, the average amount of time it takes to file taxes is even higher: 24 hours.== https://money.com/filing-taxes-time-money-burden/ https://money.com/filing-taxes-time-money-burden/
ctkhn 1y ago
Love that the repo has two commits and they're both "initial commit"
- dylan604 1y ago
  i've done that when i forgot to add some necessary files in the initial initial commit. since the adding the forgotten files did not include any changes warranting a different message, it lets me know i was a knucklehead and the commits are meant be considered the same commit. it's much faster than looking up to see if there's a way to amend an existing commit with additional files, and then going through the process of actually doing it. my use of git is add/commit/push/clone/switch/fetch. after that, it's 100% look it up and hope i'm not going to bork my repo by following some SO thread
  - lcnPylGDnU4H9OF 1y ago
    For what it's worth, you can still do it with those commands, though I understand part of the point is that you don't necessarily remember all of the options for them. But in this case, it should be simple: git add . git commit --amend -m "initial commit" git push -f origin HEAD I don't know when `--amend` was added. I used to do a squash rebase but this is much nicer.
    - monkpit 1y ago
      git commit --amend --no-edit
    - Terr_ 1y ago
      > I used to do a squash rebase This probably wouldn't apply to the "initial commit" problem, but I almost always use fixup instead of amend, ex: git add foo.code git commit --fixup {commit_with} git rebase -i --autosquash {main_or_whatever} Unlike amend, you can target an older commit rather than just the very-most-recent (great if you're separating the rename/refactor from the rewrite) and you can delay the second step of actually changing history until you're sure stuff is in a good state. This is particularly useful for the review process: All the changes during the review process can be "fixup" commits, allowing reviewers to easily see what did (or didn't) change since their last interaction. At the same time, all the fiddly fixes and back-and-forth stuff won't be in the final history, only a smaller number of "real" commits that future maintainers would care about.
divbzero 1y ago
Related discussion from last week: IRS Direct File - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44131901 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44131901 - May 2025 (62 comments)
deleted 1y ago
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paxys 1y ago
TurboTax isn't "trying to kill" it they have successfully killed it. Intuit donated $1M to Trump's inaugration fund, and the Trump administation subsequently ended support for Direct File (which I'm assuming is why it was open sourced). The IRS will no longer accept returns directly. 18F itself was disbanded by doge, so even though the code is open source no one is going to continue to develop it.
- janeerie 1y ago
  This isn't true - you can still submit through Direct File: https://directfile.irs.gov/ https://directfile.irs.gov/
  - paxys 1y ago
    For the 2024 tax season yes. Funding bill removes it for 2025 onward.
    - janeerie 1y ago
      Yes, but you may want to reword this part, since it implies that DF is already shut down: "The IRS will no longer accept returns directly."
      - pimlottc 1y ago
        > "The IRS will no longer accept returns directly." Where are you finding that quote, I don't see it on the Direct File homepage [0] EDIT: Ah, I see now, it was from paxys's original post [1], I assumed it was meant to be an official quote from the IRS somewhere. 0: https://directfile.irs.gov/ https://directfile.irs.gov/ 1: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44183593 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44183593
        janeerie 1y ago
        This was in the post I was responding to.
eamann 1y ago
It's a bit disappointing that a seemingly official project isn't using commit signing for verification and non-repudiation. It's open source, great! But it's also pretty massive (i.e. hard to review everything) and the chance of a bad actor sticking code in something so critical as tax filings.
- dylan604 1y ago
  what could it really do though? any discrepancies will just be settled in an audit. of course, you are providing name, address, SSN, bank account info, but what malevolent entity doesn't already have that data about you anyways? besides, trust us, we're the government is good enough already! /s
- deepsun 1y ago
  Kinda. Since it's Public Domain, there's little to no use in signing the code, because they explicitly forfeited any rights to it. Public Domain means you can legally take their code, riddle it with malware, and distribute, claiming that's the real and true Direct File source code, and you are its author. What you do with malware is a different legal issue of course. So I'm not sure proving you are commit owner by signing it is really helpful if anyone can do it as well, and there's no copyright holder to decide who's right.
  - justinrubek 1y ago
    Copyright doesn't have anything to do with it, even remotely. I don't care who owns it or who claims to own it. But it may be useful to verify that the commit came from the government.
    - deepsun 1y ago
      But how do you verify? Let's say you see a green checkmark on GitHub that confirms the commit was really made by GitHub user @totally_legit_government_absolutely_not_hacker. Unless you already have their public GPG key in your private keychain, and you marked it as "trusted" previously, there's not really much more info to that. UPDATE: besides, the government is like a million people, some of them are malicious actors.
uticus 1y ago
[flagged]
- FergusArgyll 1y ago
  Wow, deepwiki is really cool
ronbenton 1y ago
Sadly this program is being killed by the current admin. This repo looks great. The scala fact graph is super neat and there is clearly a lot of care that went into making the tutorial for it.
- ryandrake 1y ago
  I'm sure everyone working on this knew it was doomed before the first line of code was written, and that it would be killed as soon as the next (R) was in charge. It was a great accomplishment to get working software released before that happened, but I'm sure nobody was kidding themselves into thinking it would last. The pay-to-file tax lobby is too strong and corrupt.
  - afavour 1y ago
    I don't know about that. Inertia is a strong force but it goes in both directions. Had this administration been a Democratic one four years might be long enough to establish it strongly enough that it would be very difficult to remove. Look at the Affordable Care Act. Imperfect though it was, Republicans have pledged over and over that they're going to get rid of it but when it power it seems they just can't.
    - ryandrake 1y ago
      I hope you're right, but this administration so far has found almost no limit to the number of projects, lives, roles and institutions it can destroy or at least attempt to destroy. And the party that is supposed to be acting as the Opposition is basically letting them do whatever they want unhindered. Unless you consider "holding up little signs and making frowny-faces" to count as "doing something."
      - meepmorp 1y ago
        > Opposition is basically letting them do whatever they want unhindered what do you propose they do, being entirely out of power?
timerol 1y ago
Who among us has not accidentally made a new repo as just a submodule pointer instead of actually committing the files? https://github.com/IRS-Public/direct-file/commit/2f3ebd669327a161491157bc0dc24a9e2554ed13 https://github.com/IRS-Public/direct-file/commit/2f3ebd66932... It's also fun that, because this is from the US, they can't just use CC0, but instead need to clarify that this must be public domain, separately from the worldwide CC0.
- runako 1y ago
  Another way of saying this: Creative Commons, based in California, USA, did not publish a license that can be used by one of the largest domestic authors of software. Less snarkily, I do wonder about the discrepancy there.
  - gowld 1y ago
    Category Error. Public Domain is not a license. It is a state of being. Creative Commons is a worldwide organization, not a jurisdiction-specfic organization. Creative Commons does not have the authority to harmonize laws worldwide. https://creativecommons.org/public-domain/pdm/ https://creativecommons.org/public-domain/pdm/ https://creativecommons.org/public-domain/cc0/ https://creativecommons.org/public-domain/cc0/
    - deepsun 1y ago
      In other words, think of Copyright. A Copyright holder can apply any license they like, and change the licenses for new versions whenever they like. Public Domain is explicit forfeiting the Copyright, which means authors cannot enforce any license (and anyone can just take their work and declare it it's theirs, apply licenses etc). PS: AFAIK, however, Authorship rights are different from Copyright, and cannot be given/passed as Copyrights, at least in US.
  - globular-toast 1y ago
    It's not that they can't, it's just pointless to offer a licence for something that's in the public domain. Also it's important to remember these works are not in the public domain because someone declared them to be, they are simply because they are works carried out by the US government. Similar to how copyright is automatic, it's not applied only when you put the copyright symbol, that's just informational.
adamdecaf 1y ago
There's quite the mix of languages involved! ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Language files blank comment code ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- YAML 452 158 693 161655 JSON 396 1 0 155975 JavaScript 7 21 4513 123150 TypeScript 741 7913 19645 80869 XML 66 5208 1006 60935 Java 725 7380 2283 37863 Scala 272 3275 1423 25395 CSV 146 0 0 25335 Markdown 86 5019 21 9228 SVG 12 5 1749 9130 HTML 39 52 4 4073 Maven 16 61 87 1963 SCSS 47 380 85 1662 Scheme 5 121 0 864 Python 13 185 96 668 Bourne Shell 17 94 127 541 DOS Batch 2 30 0 268 CSS 1 17 0 81 Properties 9 0 24 60 Text 3 1 0 35 TOML 1 6 0 26 Dockerfile 1 8 1 19 INI 1 0 0 7 SQL 4 0 0 5 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- SUM: 3062 29935 31757 699807 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
- epcoa 1y ago
  Other than the flourish of adding some Scala to enterprisey Java there is absolutely nothing atypical about this bog enterprisey application. It’s a JS/TS/Java app, nothing else stands out. Listing every config language and a few lines of CI or whatever scripts shit is misleading. I see nothing other than typical boring enterprise/big gov crap here (which is fine, and expected).
tonymet 1y ago
[flagged]
- prophesi 1y ago
  Intuit and their millions in lobbying efforts might change the administration's thoughts on that.
- BHSPitMonkey 1y ago
  • IRS Direct File launched in 2024 after being created via the Biden administration's Inflation Reduction Act in 2024. • The Trump administration is preparing to sign into law a new budget that orders the immediate termination of the Direct File program (see SEC. 112207 "TASK FORCE ON THE TERMINATION OF DIRECT FILE"). • 18F, the agency within the federal government probably most responsible for championing and promoting open source development (and just all-around providing good digital services at a significantly lower cost), was eliminated by the Trump administration in March. I know that you are probably a busy person, like many of us here; Still, I would encourage you to take some time each week to become informed about what is (or isn't) happening in politics rather than just offering knee-jerk reactions based on partisan feelings. It really is important.
- const_cast 1y ago
  Except that Trump has already prevented us from using it. He axed it, beginning next tax season. It's not a boogie-man, Trump really does just suck. He's anti like, anything even good-adjacent.
- lagniappe 1y ago
  I see you've discovered the reddit-to-HN flywheel.
internet_points 1y ago
> Direct File also incorporates the Fact Graph, a declarative, XML-based knowledge graph data structure that is designed to reason about incomplete information, such as a partially completed tax return. The Fact Graph is written in the Scala programming language; it runs on the JVM on the backend and is transpiled via Scala.js to run on the client as well. Direct File's Fact Graph is not domain-specific, and it may be useful to revenue agencies and as a reference for business rules engine implementations.
- MrLeap 1y ago
  Interesting, I want to read more about this.
  - uticus 1y ago
    https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44183845 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44183845
    - Groxx 1y ago
      Not sure an LLM summary is all that useful
- timhigins 1y ago
  The code that defines how the fact graph works is here: https://github.com/IRS-Public/direct-file/tree/main/direct-file/fact-graph-scala https://github.com/IRS-Public/direct-file/tree/main/direct-f... but the actual tax definitions that deal with facts and derived calculation are here: https://github.com/IRS-Public/direct-file/tree/main/direct-file/backend/src/main/resources/tax https://github.com/IRS-Public/direct-file/tree/main/direct-f... See for example the standard deduction and tax rate calculations https://github.com/IRS-Public/direct-file/blob/main/direct-file/backend/src/main/resources/tax/standardDeduction.xml https://github.com/IRS-Public/direct-file/blob/main/direct-f... https://github.com/IRS-Public/direct-file/blob/main/direct-file/backend/src/main/resources/tax/taxCalculations.xml https://github.com/IRS-Public/direct-file/blob/main/direct-f... I imagine these are based on the MeF (Modernized e-File) schemas because the system needs to transform the input data into XML MeF schemas to submit electronically to the MeF system (See https://www.irs.gov/e-file-providers/modernized-e-file-mef-schemas-and-business-rules https://www.irs.gov/e-file-providers/modernized-e-file-mef-s...)
deleted 1y ago
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pimlottc 1y ago
Aside from the code, there's also a ton of great design documents and notes under /docs/design [0], including detailed process diagrams for many of the user flows (unfortunately not directly viewable online since they're within zip files; see flow1.zip and flow2.zip) 0: https://github.com/IRS-Public/direct-file/tree/main/docs/design https://github.com/IRS-Public/direct-file/tree/main/docs/des...
90s_dev 1y ago
Is this common in Java? https://github.com/IRS-Public/direct-file/blob/9dd76a786ea6928bab21b983f776518c2a328d50/direct-file/state-api/src/main/java/gov/irs/directfile/stateapi/controller/StateApiController.java#L184-L227 https://github.com/IRS-Public/direct-file/blob/9dd76a786ea69...
- pjc50 1y ago
  Is this what people have to do when they don't have the C# async/await autogenerated state machine?
  - winrid 1y ago
    Yup. Although to be honest it probably doesn't need to be reactive.
- koolba 1y ago
  It is if you’re doing government style work and you want have a job for life creating code that nobody else can read. Or if you’re in the business of selling extremely wide aspect ratio monitors.
  - tempest_ 1y ago
    It is nested sure but the entire thing fits on 1080p monitor
    - timewizard 1y ago
      Well... depending on your default level of zoom. After staring at code for 12 hours a day for a few decades my zoom is 125% by default.
      - 90s_dev 1y ago
        Careful, at this rate your zoom level will be an unreadable 900% after only a few centuries...
piker 1y ago
> libs Guys I knew it
- WorldPeas 1y ago
  fork this repo so you can own the libs
yonran 1y ago
What would it take for an individual or small business to run a version of this locally? To file, you need an MeF account with IRS; does the IRS grant those freely? And to import W2s and 1099s, it seems that there is a DataImportService interface but unfortunately there is no implementation and the APIs to IRS are not public. If the Biden administration wanted to break the tax software oligopoly, they should have focused on making the government’s own interfaces open.
ivanjermakov 1y ago
> The source code is only public because of federal law I doubt contributions are welcome
BrandoElFollito 1y ago
What is the core reason for the government in the US to not provide a simple online tax filing portal like we generally have in Europe. It is pre-filled with the known incomes so for the best majority of people filling their taxes is a 1 minute exercise. This also helps, I guess, to have the taxes flow in.
- hoten 1y ago
  lobbying on behalf of the tax filing industry additionally, the US has (one of?) the most complex tax systems in the world. In part b/c most of it is carve outs...on behalf of various lobbyist groups / catering to specific voting blocks.
  - alemanek 1y ago
    That is still no excuse. The majority of the population of the US claims the standard deduction and has all their income in the form of W2 or 1099 which is reported to the IRS by the employer. Those people can be served by a return free filing system. The minority which have more complicated taxes can still file like they do today. But even adding on investment income and housing related deductions the IRS likely has enough information to calculate what is owed. We shouldn’t let perfect be the enemy of better. I know you weren’t arguing that point but just because the tax code is complex doesn’t mean it is complex for everyone’s situation
- deleted 1y ago
  [deleted]
- weberer 1y ago
  Entering your income is easy enough if you're a salaried employee with a W2 form. The time consuming part is searching for and entering deductions. The tax code is ridiculously complex and there are forms for all sorts of deductions.
  - jonas21 1y ago
    90% of people take the standard deduction, which takes maybe 10 seconds to enter.
cookingmyserver 1y ago
I enjoyed walking through some of their docs which documented decisions and deliverables. Thought for sure it would have just been a dump of source code with little to no context.
vagab0nd 1y ago
Ok we now have "law is code". When can we have "code is law"? Write the code as source of truth and generate the law from it.
- seattle_spring 1y ago
  That's what a smart contract is meant to represent, and they get taken advantage of every single day.
- timewizard 1y ago
  The law has better properties when it comes to undefined behavior than code does.
colelyman 1y ago
I went to the link thinking that I could now file my taxes with the IRS through GitHub, which I honestly have mixed feelings about.
- BHSPitMonkey 1y ago
  That's an idea... Make a fork, add a file at taxpayers/${SSN}.yaml describing your return in terms of income/deductions/circumstances, make sure it lints successfully, and then submit a PR for the IRS to review. If it's merged, CI/CD initiates a bank payment/withdrawal. If you get audited, resolve the conflicts and update the PR.
thuanao 1y ago
In my experience the paper forms are so much easier and more reliable than using tax software. A pen and a form just works. No account logins and passwords, no janky UI, no advertisements, no issues saving your progress... The instructions are much better too. Each box is numbered and there's an instruction manual detailing what to put in that box. If you make mistakes the IRS will simply correct you.
- pfg_ 1y ago
  The problem I had with the papers is they don't tell you when you need to have another form. Guided question software will ask questions to determine if you need forms.
timhigins 1y ago
> Exempted Code > Not all source code, documentation and metadata used in the development of Direct File is included in this repository. Specifically, any code or data that is considered Personally Identifiable Information (PII), Federal Tax Information (FTI), Sensitive But Unclassified (SBU), or source code developed for National Security Systems (NSS), as defined in 40 U.S.C. § 11103, is exempt. Due to these restrictions, certain pieces of functionality have been removed or rewritten. Very curious about what these pieces are that were removed
- dlcarrier 1y ago
  It's probably a boilerplate notice put on all releases. Sometimes they aren't even allowed to explicitly state that something was excluded, so they have to put that notice on all releases, so there's no way to infer which releases have exclusions.
czhu12 1y ago
Given this project is being drained of resources by the new admin, is anyone in the know able to comment on how hard this would be to take, and stand up, as a competitor to turbo tax? Presumably, any Intuit competitors will be given a 10 year headstart worth many millions, maybe billions?
- foolswisdom 1y ago
  Is there a reason you'd need to do so? What is freetaxusa.com missing that direct file gives you (other than the fact that direct file is free and supported by the government itself)?
  - TsiCClawOfLight 1y ago
    Expat support.
    - furyg3 1y ago
      If anyone has any tips for the most cost effective way for expats to file, please share them here. I'm doing it all by hand because I'm tired of going through the 'free' apps and entering in all my details, and when I get ready to file it end up being hundreds of dollars to file since the other forms (extra 1040 schedules, 2555, etc) are not included.
      - 1oooqooq 1y ago
        yes. and you have the right answer. download and print forms. no way around it. or pay $500 each year to the top 2.
  - 1oooqooq 1y ago
    freetaxusa doesn't cover the cases for almost everyone here. ever bought stocks? out! also, you need to submit selfies and have a usa sim card from specific providers.
    - 1y ago
UncleOxidant 1y ago
> Please note: As of two weeks ago, I no longer work at the IRS. I am writing solely in my personal capacity. It's too bad the current Administration is going to kill DirectFile and has fired all the people who were working on it.
vjvjvjvjghv 1y ago
Weren't they also working on a system that would send you a prefilled return with all information filled in the IRS already has?
tomhow 1y ago
See also: Saying Goodbye - https://chrisgiven.com/2025/06/saying-goodbye/ https://chrisgiven.com/2025/06/saying-goodbye/
ronbenton 1y ago
Favorite quote(s) >But as I told the team as the end closed in, “We took a pipedream, and made it a policy choice.” No one can claim with a straight face that Direct File is impossible anymore; bringing it back requires only that our elected leaders make a different choice. >What I mourn the most, though, is the dissolution of the team, the disregard for the vast impact they were poised and eager to deliver. The team itself is what I am proudest of from my time working on Direct File. Their manic dedication to the mission. The care they consistently took to get it right. The trust and love they had for each other.
- tomhow 1y ago
  I moved this from https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44187512 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44187512
- deleted 1y ago
  [deleted]
delfugal 1y ago
[dead]
cebert 1y ago
This code base is clean and well-crafted. I appreciate the extensive documentation. It’s unfortunate that Direct File was affected by budget cuts.
- nickthegreek 1y ago
  budget cuts had nothing to do with it. this was a lobbied choice.
insane_dreamer 1y ago
I wonder whether Cash App's free filing service (used it for the first time last year and it was very good even for my somewhat complicated taxes) is based on this?
piracyrules 1y ago
[flagged]
piracyrules 1y ago
Let's not forget how IRS only goes after the small fishes in the pond. Billionaires get a free pass from them all the time.
Zambyte 1y ago
Why was the IRS-Public[0] group created for this, instead of using the existing irsgov[1] group? [0] https://github.com/IRS-Public https://github.com/IRS-Public [1] https://github.com/irsgov https://github.com/irsgov
bigon 1y ago
Wait, the USA/IRS is not providing a free platform for individuals to fill their tax?
- PopAlongKid 1y ago
  Anyone can download files for all the forms and schedules, then fill print and mail for the cost of postage.
  - mdaniel 1y ago
    I can't tell if you're "/s" but this strikes me as "anyone can download the SMTP RFCs and roll their own mail server" but that's not the same as actually running a mail server due to the monstrous amount of non-functional requirements that have been applied to that space over the years To the best of my knowledge, the tax filer is responsible for knowing the law, which includes amendments made almost every Congressional session, the court rulings upon both of those things, the judicial meaning of the English words used in all that corpus, and then one can get into the pdfs and their printing and mailing. Or all of those lawyers and enrolled agents can be rented at tax time in order to outsource some of the liability, and thus that's how we end up with the current cesspool of a system we have
    - PopAlongKid 1y ago
      Very few taxpayers need to tread into the obscure corners of the tax code, regulations, court cases, and so on. In fact, the tax forms and accompanying instructions are written at a level that anyone with a high school education should be able to understand. Examples are often included, along with call-outs for "Tips" and "Caution" to highlight key points. Further, there are dozens of publications that go into more detail and cover probably 90% or more of all the scenarios one would encounter. Pub 17 in particular is a beginning-to-end handbook that covers Form 1040 and the common forms/schedules and the entire filing process, with references to other pubs when appropriate, again all written at a high-school level. These are available in both PDF and HTML formats. Recall that electronic filing has only been around for a few decades, so prior to that everyone used to fill and file on paper The IRS has long history of providing the necessary instructions to do so at a level accessible to the vast majority of users. It is also a fact that the tax software providers use these same instructions and publications as the specifications that their software must meet. Literally, they will hold up release of various forms for filing using their software until the IRS finalizes the accompanying form instructions.
elif 1y ago
Seems like an anti-pattern to involve so many unique human perspectives on who owes what. An authority should establish what taxes are owed objectively, and the system should just send out invoices. If you have a problem with that, build a robust appeal process. Essentially what we have now is an appeal process for every single person.
- ted_dunning 1y ago
  This ignores the reality that the authority in question doesn't have all of the necessary information. This isn't just a matter of reporting wages and such, it also involves decisions such as accounting information such as depreciation periods, business expenses and many other factors.
  - kjkjadksj 1y ago
    Yet the audit arm is revenue positive so the system already works like this.
jsmo 1y ago
Thanks for sharing!
johnwatson11218 1y ago
Everyone is talking about having LLMs write software but what about having them delete code? That can be very hard in a legacy enterprise environment. I think dead code detection overlaps with security and that is a good way to sell that kind of code clean up. Having LLMs review your architecture is a fun exercise, being able to incorporate that feedback is a good measure for the dev teams.
monksy 1y ago
The fact graph service uses scala!
1-more 1y ago
IRS knows what a bifunctor is. What an amazing day https://github.com/IRS-Public/direct-file/blob/9dd76a786ea6928bab21b983f776518c2a328d50/direct-file/fact-graph-scala/js/src/main/scala/gov/irs/factgraph/monads/JSEither.scala#L28-L38 https://github.com/IRS-Public/direct-file/blob/9dd76a786ea69...

744 points by nickthegreek 1y ago

https://github.com/IRS-Public/direct-file https://github.com/IRS-Public/direct-file

I figure that the source code is not the hard part of the IRS making this available to the public, but the interoperability with the revenue system, and its verified adherence to the current tax code. Couldn't those things still be killed by the administration even if the source code is available publicly?

xhevahir 1y ago
Right, politicians and officials working on behalf of the tax-filing lobby could introduce lots of changes to the tax code with a view to making this software useless.
- glookler 1y ago
  The point of open sourcing from a dying ship is that the groups that can modify this software and resell it all start from it as a baseline. Is TurboTax all lean mean code available at a low enough price while still meeting profit expectations if it needs drastic changes?
  - bee_rider 1y ago
    I mean… in some sense, it might be nice is the company doing your tax preparation is not too lean and mean, their whole point is to eat the hit if they screw it up, right? The math is not actually hard. But, realistically, I guess if a self-service tax prep company messed up your taxes, they’d make sure you end up in arbitration.
    - yencabulator 1y ago
      The form you sign to authorize efiling says "I declare that I have examined a copy of the income tax return ... and to the best of my knowledge and belief, it is true, correct, and complete." If you think Intuit is going to cover you, you haven't really seen the things they do.
  - mrguyorama 1y ago
    What is this repo's marketing budget by any chance? Intuit's was big enough to pervert American tax policy for decades.
    - glookler 1y ago
      Intuit can spend all the money they can convince investors to lose relative to last year and expectations, but they'll have a yggdrasil of companies to buy out from a turn-key solution and all their costs fighting OMB will amount to nothing if they screw one buyout up and get an updated software drop for a new round of $5 filers. The companies Intuit will have to buy out don't have to make any profit per filer, they just have to take filers away from Inuit.
BryantD 1y ago
Yeah, absolutely. FWIW, the repo notes: "Direct File interprets the United States' Internal Revenue Code (26 USC) as plain language questions, the answers to which should be known to taxpayers without need of external instructions or publications. Taxpayers' answers are then translated into standard tax forms and transmitted to the IRS's Modernized e-File (MeF) API, which is available for authorized public use." So in theory it's useful now, but as you say it could easily change.
- kevin_thibedeau 1y ago
  The tax code is riddled with euphemisms like EITC that don't mean what it says on the tin. There's no way normies can manage that without instructions.
  - kccqzy 1y ago
    I thought OP's point is that normies who have no idea what EITC is can simply answer a series of simpler questions that don't mention EITC, and the software figures out whether they can claim the EITC.
  - deleted 1y ago
    [deleted]
  - gleenn 1y ago
    Yes but there are plenty of companies or people that may want to know how the code works and would be motivated enough to read through the code to understand it and having it there in the public makes that possible.
  - jandrese 1y ago
    There are also ambiguous edge cases that can't be answered until someone is audited and the IRS and the Tax attorney hash it out in court. For example I installed Solar panels many years ago and read the exact wording on the Solar Tax Credit to try to figure out if you could include roof repairs under the panels in the credit. The wording was something like "all costs associated with a solar install". Every installer I talked to said yes, but it seemed dubious so I tried calling the IRS help line to get the answer and the help line was no help at all. A few years later and some court battles lost and that answer is now firmly a "no", making me glad I ignored the installer's advice. How is tax prep software supposed to handle a situation like that? Some of the for pay options include "audit protection", but I don't know how far that goes. I guess you can attempt to pass all liability on to the customer, but even that seems a bit risky. And definitely the IRS has its own jargon that doesn't always make sense to the layperson. Why, for example, is a form that you fill out once per tax year called a "schedule"? It doesn't organize anything by date or time!
HPsquared 1y ago
Sounds like a business opportunity.
- nitwit005 1y ago
  The whole point of the program was to eliminate that business opportunity.
  - gowld 1y ago
    Why? What's wrong with people getting paid to improve upon the government's work?
    - braebo 1y ago
      Nothing but that’s not what was happening.
    - acdha 1y ago
      The idea is that normal people shouldn’t have to pay to do something the government requires everyone to do. I’ve heard multiple non-Americans express amazement that people with simple jobs have to do anything other than confirm or perhaps update the data which the tax collectors already have because they weren’t thinking of it from the perspective of being a useful marketing tool for fearmongering about the government.
      - tombert 1y ago
        I have told this story before here, but it's relevant. In 2021, I filed my 2020 taxes, and a few months later I get a letter from the IRS saying that I owed $8000 because I forgot to report a large stock transaction. I owed $7000 + a $1000 fine. I wasn't mad at all about the $7000, I definitely owed that and it was just an oversight on my end, these things happen, and I was able to get the fine lowered by calling the IRS [1], so that wasn't a huge deal . What did annoy me was why do I have to do anything? If the IRS knows about the transaction and is able to complain about me not paying enough, that suggests that they already have the information that I'm sending them. Why make me buy software and copy information from a piece of paper into that software, just for the IRS to check it against the numbers that they already have? I understand that you might need to issue corrections, and maybe the software should exist for something like that, but it doesn't seem like it should exist otherwise. [1] Who at least in my case was actually really polite and helpful! I had heard horror stories but that was definitely not the case for me. The people I talked to were very sympathetic and nice.
fitsumbelay 1y ago
Piggybacking, I think the "hard part" also includes the decades of success that the tax prep lobby's had in protecting its business interests at the cost of US citizen's welfare. Although the number of states that provide free direct filing has grown from last year -- which I only remember to be substantially less than the 25 who do so today -- it's unclear what the problem is with the remaining 25 including DC where I live
freeone3000 1y ago
I do not know of this capability currently, but if it has enough for eFile, it can also be used to generate a paper return.
- yencabulator 1y ago
  For years prior to last good commit. The rules change every year.
mystified5016 1y ago
I wouldn't say interop is a huge deal, the main time and cost sink is translating the recursive Gordian knots of tax law into a logically cohesive structure that can be evaluated programmatically. And then you (ideally) must prove its correctness. Imagine pair programming with a tax lawyer. I'd rather eat my own hands.
- rsti0000 1y ago
  DirectFile wasn’t meant to handle complicated edge cases. Most filers have a w2 and a few 1099s, use the standard deduction, and claim a few common credits (e.g., child and earned-income). They could file for free in a few minutes with directfile.
NoahZuniga 1y ago
> Taxpayers' answers are then translated into standard tax forms and transmitted to the IRS's Modernized e-File (MeF) API, which is available for authorized public use The interoperability with the revenue system is provided by a different project, and this API is also used by turbotax and the like. It won't be going away. The interoperability is not the hard part.
- b112 1y ago
  It could easily go away, if there are claims of people abusing the API, or using "unlicensed software to use the API" causing errors. By licensed, I mean "approved to use the API". There could also be pushes to monetize the API, "Why is this service free!?". Meaning they'd likely require a need to be incorporated, setup a commercial account with them, and have payment method on file, and on and on. My point is, I can think of dozens of sneaky ways to make that pesky API go away, and I'm not even trying.
  - NoahZuniga 1y ago
    What I'm getting at is that the interoperability is not the hard part of this project.
    - yencabulator 1y ago
      You're confusing technical ease with political desirability.
      - NoahZuniga 1y ago
        No, just that this interoperability already exists, and is not a hard part for this project.
sowbug 1y ago
Imagine this source code becoming the unit tests for the legal code. Future tax-code changes would be accompanied by corresponding changes in GitHub. Inconsistencies would surface as new code and tests break the old ones. As courts introduce new nuances to the law's interpretation, new unit tests would follow. This wouldn't replace human judgment; nobody in power would allow that. But even the capriciousness of politics can be expressed as Boolean logic (var isDeductible = taxpayerIsMe && !taxpayerIsYou). The tests could at least memorialize all the pork.
- naikrovek 1y ago
  good luck with that; interpretation make things like this very difficult, if not impossible. I agree that this would be nice, however. as a non-lawyer and someone who considers themself to be not a "real" developer (even though I write software every day) I have often wondered how alike law and code are, really, when it comes to defining intent via a keyboard.
  - robertlagrant 1y ago
    I would prefer it if any change to the IRS rules must be accompanied by a reference implementation and lots of tests.
    - ted_dunning 1y ago
      Tell me how you will write a unit test for determining the percentage of your utilities that is deductible on Schedule C. Or a unit test that determines whether the discussion during a meal with a customer was "substantially about business matters".
      - yencabulator 1y ago
        What percentage of US citizens expense business meals? This is all about automating the simple cases. Anything more complex is an input to the system, the system can still be tested.
      - 1y ago

zb3 1y ago

https://github.com/IRS-Public/direct-file https://github.com/IRS-Public/direct-file

jmisavage 1y ago

Found the repo over here if anyone is curious. https://github.com/IRS-Public/direct-file https://github.com/IRS-Public/direct-file

anigbrowl 1y ago
[flagged]
- dylan604 1y ago
  This is a service. What happens if some ideologue turns off whatever is listening on the government's end? Unless this forked version will then print out a bunch of forms for someone to physically mail in, owning this software without being able to communicate to a digital host is useless.
  - BHSPitMonkey 1y ago
    > Unless this forked version will then print out a bunch of forms for someone to physically mail in Well yes, this is in essence what tax return preparation software has always been; The end result is a completed set of values to fill into the boxes of form 1040 (and whatever additional forms are deemed to be required), which can then be filed electronically or written/printed on paper to be returned at an office or by mail.
    - letters90 1y ago
      Not in other countries besides the US. Haven't seen a printout since I started doing taxes.
  - rsti0000 1y ago
    The IRS accepts efilings in a prescribed format so that isnt a danger. If you look at a tax transcript produced from efiling vs a paper return, there is no material difference besides the fields related to how they were submitted.

deleted 1y ago

[deleted]

skrebbel 1y ago

Wow public domain license! Smart move, I assume those disgruntled devs who "joined a project to explore the “future of tax filing” in the private sector" can now easily fork it and compete with TurboTax directly (with, I hope, a much better product at a lower price). Normally that'd feel a bit scummy but in this case I can't fault them for it. Here's to hoping they can outcompete TurboTax so brutally that Intuit won't be able to pay for all those lobbyists anymore.

Rebelgecko 1y ago
IIRC public domain is actually the "default" for code released by the government
- haiku2077 1y ago
  Yes, works of the US Federal Government are public domain. It gets complicated when state governments, contractors, etc. are involved, but Direct File was in-house work by USDS/18F.
- kj4ips 1y ago
  Yep, one of the more popular FOSS CNC controllers (LinuxCNC) draws its heritage from a NIST project, and at least one major manufacturer ships a variant of it in their machines.
AStonesThrow 1y ago
Although it is written in the "LICENSE" file for purposes of uniformity and GitHub compatibility, a dedication to the Public Domain is not a "license". As you can see, they waive all their rights to claim copyright protection, and therefore, no license is possible; no license is necessary to use it for any purpose. And yes, "As a work of the US Government" it is dedicated to the Public Domain by law.
gowld 1y ago
TurboTax already has competitors.
BHSPitMonkey 1y ago

deleted 1y ago

[deleted]

pimlottc 1y ago

Here's the announcement from one of the principal engineers: https://chrisgiven.com/2025/05/direct-file-on-github/ https://chrisgiven.com/2025/05/direct-file-on-github/

dang 1y ago
Thanks - I've changed the URL to that from https://www.404media.co/directfile-open-source-irs-tax-filing-software-turbotax-is-trying-to-kil/ https://www.404media.co/directfile-open-source-irs-tax-filin... above, since the latter continues to be signup-walled.
- no-reply 1y ago
  If anybody wants to read the 404 article - https://archive.is/U6j4b https://archive.is/U6j4b
  - rsingel 1y ago
    You could also just sign up and read it on their site, and consider subscribing. Journalism is labor
    - 90s_dev 1y ago
      The ad model won.
    - joshmanders 1y ago
      I'd agree typically but paywalling open source government software just to talk about it is wild behavior.
      - cAtte_ 1y ago
        how is the software being paywalled here?
        1y ago

dustbunny 1y ago

[flagged]

mig39 1y ago
Even easier if your employer automatically syncs with CRA. No filling in forms at all. In other countries, the government does the taxes for you, and sends you a pre-filled form that you can amend or change.
- dustbunny 1y ago
  yeah employer has always synced, so it (wealth simple) autofills basically everything. then i just add my family specific stuff
tannschnauzer 1y ago
[dead]
xmprt 1y ago
just want to chime in to say that it's around that fast in the US as well Most people will just have to enter their W2, choose the standard deduction, and then click submit. There are free tools that do this already like FreeTaxUSA. That said, I have 2 gripes with the current system: 1. companies like TurboTax lobbying to prevent the government from building their own tool... if TurboTax is genuinely better then people will still use it even if the govt builds a tool. 2. the tax code being so complex that it's profitable for wealthy people to avoid taxes with special deductions and hire lawyers to defend them from the overstretched IRS.
- supplied_demand 1y ago
  == it's around that fast in the US as well== Do you have a source for this claim, because I found this: ==Individual income tax return filing is the most time-consuming element of the tax system, with the average taxpayer spending 13 hours to comply with the Form 1040. For individuals with business income, the average amount of time it takes to file taxes is even higher: 24 hours.== https://money.com/filing-taxes-time-money-burden/ https://money.com/filing-taxes-time-money-burden/

ctkhn 1y ago

Love that the repo has two commits and they're both "initial commit"

dylan604 1y ago
i've done that when i forgot to add some necessary files in the initial initial commit. since the adding the forgotten files did not include any changes warranting a different message, it lets me know i was a knucklehead and the commits are meant be considered the same commit. it's much faster than looking up to see if there's a way to amend an existing commit with additional files, and then going through the process of actually doing it. my use of git is add/commit/push/clone/switch/fetch. after that, it's 100% look it up and hope i'm not going to bork my repo by following some SO thread
- lcnPylGDnU4H9OF 1y ago
  For what it's worth, you can still do it with those commands, though I understand part of the point is that you don't necessarily remember all of the options for them. But in this case, it should be simple: git add . git commit --amend -m "initial commit" git push -f origin HEAD I don't know when `--amend` was added. I used to do a squash rebase but this is much nicer.
  - monkpit 1y ago
    git commit --amend --no-edit
  - Terr_ 1y ago
    > I used to do a squash rebase This probably wouldn't apply to the "initial commit" problem, but I almost always use fixup instead of amend, ex: git add foo.code git commit --fixup {commit_with} git rebase -i --autosquash {main_or_whatever} Unlike amend, you can target an older commit rather than just the very-most-recent (great if you're separating the rename/refactor from the rewrite) and you can delay the second step of actually changing history until you're sure stuff is in a good state. This is particularly useful for the review process: All the changes during the review process can be "fixup" commits, allowing reviewers to easily see what did (or didn't) change since their last interaction. At the same time, all the fiddly fixes and back-and-forth stuff won't be in the final history, only a smaller number of "real" commits that future maintainers would care about.

divbzero 1y ago

Related discussion from last week: IRS Direct File - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44131901 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44131901 - May 2025 (62 comments)

deleted 1y ago

[deleted]

paxys 1y ago

TurboTax isn't "trying to kill" it they have successfully killed it. Intuit donated $1M to Trump's inaugration fund, and the Trump administation subsequently ended support for Direct File (which I'm assuming is why it was open sourced). The IRS will no longer accept returns directly. 18F itself was disbanded by doge, so even though the code is open source no one is going to continue to develop it.

janeerie 1y ago
This isn't true - you can still submit through Direct File: https://directfile.irs.gov/ https://directfile.irs.gov/
- paxys 1y ago
  For the 2024 tax season yes. Funding bill removes it for 2025 onward.
  - janeerie 1y ago
    Yes, but you may want to reword this part, since it implies that DF is already shut down: "The IRS will no longer accept returns directly."
    - pimlottc 1y ago
      > "The IRS will no longer accept returns directly." Where are you finding that quote, I don't see it on the Direct File homepage [0] EDIT: Ah, I see now, it was from paxys's original post [1], I assumed it was meant to be an official quote from the IRS somewhere. 0: https://directfile.irs.gov/ https://directfile.irs.gov/ 1: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44183593 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44183593
      - janeerie 1y ago
        This was in the post I was responding to.

eamann 1y ago

It's a bit disappointing that a seemingly official project isn't using commit signing for verification and non-repudiation. It's open source, great! But it's also pretty massive (i.e. hard to review everything) and the chance of a bad actor sticking code in something so critical as tax filings.

dylan604 1y ago
what could it really do though? any discrepancies will just be settled in an audit. of course, you are providing name, address, SSN, bank account info, but what malevolent entity doesn't already have that data about you anyways? besides, trust us, we're the government is good enough already! /s
deepsun 1y ago
Kinda. Since it's Public Domain, there's little to no use in signing the code, because they explicitly forfeited any rights to it. Public Domain means you can legally take their code, riddle it with malware, and distribute, claiming that's the real and true Direct File source code, and you are its author. What you do with malware is a different legal issue of course. So I'm not sure proving you are commit owner by signing it is really helpful if anyone can do it as well, and there's no copyright holder to decide who's right.
- justinrubek 1y ago
  Copyright doesn't have anything to do with it, even remotely. I don't care who owns it or who claims to own it. But it may be useful to verify that the commit came from the government.
  - deepsun 1y ago
    But how do you verify? Let's say you see a green checkmark on GitHub that confirms the commit was really made by GitHub user @totally_legit_government_absolutely_not_hacker. Unless you already have their public GPG key in your private keychain, and you marked it as "trusted" previously, there's not really much more info to that. UPDATE: besides, the government is like a million people, some of them are malicious actors.

uticus 1y ago

[flagged]

FergusArgyll 1y ago
Wow, deepwiki is really cool

ronbenton 1y ago

Sadly this program is being killed by the current admin. This repo looks great. The scala fact graph is super neat and there is clearly a lot of care that went into making the tutorial for it.

ryandrake 1y ago
I'm sure everyone working on this knew it was doomed before the first line of code was written, and that it would be killed as soon as the next (R) was in charge. It was a great accomplishment to get working software released before that happened, but I'm sure nobody was kidding themselves into thinking it would last. The pay-to-file tax lobby is too strong and corrupt.
- afavour 1y ago
  I don't know about that. Inertia is a strong force but it goes in both directions. Had this administration been a Democratic one four years might be long enough to establish it strongly enough that it would be very difficult to remove. Look at the Affordable Care Act. Imperfect though it was, Republicans have pledged over and over that they're going to get rid of it but when it power it seems they just can't.
  - ryandrake 1y ago
    I hope you're right, but this administration so far has found almost no limit to the number of projects, lives, roles and institutions it can destroy or at least attempt to destroy. And the party that is supposed to be acting as the Opposition is basically letting them do whatever they want unhindered. Unless you consider "holding up little signs and making frowny-faces" to count as "doing something."
    - meepmorp 1y ago
      > Opposition is basically letting them do whatever they want unhindered what do you propose they do, being entirely out of power?

timerol 1y ago

Who among us has not accidentally made a new repo as just a submodule pointer instead of actually committing the files? https://github.com/IRS-Public/direct-file/commit/2f3ebd669327a161491157bc0dc24a9e2554ed13 https://github.com/IRS-Public/direct-file/commit/2f3ebd66932... It's also fun that, because this is from the US, they can't just use CC0, but instead need to clarify that this must be public domain, separately from the worldwide CC0.

runako 1y ago
Another way of saying this: Creative Commons, based in California, USA, did not publish a license that can be used by one of the largest domestic authors of software. Less snarkily, I do wonder about the discrepancy there.
- gowld 1y ago
  Category Error. Public Domain is not a license. It is a state of being. Creative Commons is a worldwide organization, not a jurisdiction-specfic organization. Creative Commons does not have the authority to harmonize laws worldwide. https://creativecommons.org/public-domain/pdm/ https://creativecommons.org/public-domain/pdm/ https://creativecommons.org/public-domain/cc0/ https://creativecommons.org/public-domain/cc0/
  - deepsun 1y ago
    In other words, think of Copyright. A Copyright holder can apply any license they like, and change the licenses for new versions whenever they like. Public Domain is explicit forfeiting the Copyright, which means authors cannot enforce any license (and anyone can just take their work and declare it it's theirs, apply licenses etc). PS: AFAIK, however, Authorship rights are different from Copyright, and cannot be given/passed as Copyrights, at least in US.
- globular-toast 1y ago
  It's not that they can't, it's just pointless to offer a licence for something that's in the public domain. Also it's important to remember these works are not in the public domain because someone declared them to be, they are simply because they are works carried out by the US government. Similar to how copyright is automatic, it's not applied only when you put the copyright symbol, that's just informational.

adamdecaf 1y ago

There's quite the mix of languages involved! ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Language files blank comment code ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- YAML 452 158 693 161655 JSON 396 1 0 155975 JavaScript 7 21 4513 123150 TypeScript 741 7913 19645 80869 XML 66 5208 1006 60935 Java 725 7380 2283 37863 Scala 272 3275 1423 25395 CSV 146 0 0 25335 Markdown 86 5019 21 9228 SVG 12 5 1749 9130 HTML 39 52 4 4073 Maven 16 61 87 1963 SCSS 47 380 85 1662 Scheme 5 121 0 864 Python 13 185 96 668 Bourne Shell 17 94 127 541 DOS Batch 2 30 0 268 CSS 1 17 0 81 Properties 9 0 24 60 Text 3 1 0 35 TOML 1 6 0 26 Dockerfile 1 8 1 19 INI 1 0 0 7 SQL 4 0 0 5 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- SUM: 3062 29935 31757 699807 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------

epcoa 1y ago
Other than the flourish of adding some Scala to enterprisey Java there is absolutely nothing atypical about this bog enterprisey application. It’s a JS/TS/Java app, nothing else stands out. Listing every config language and a few lines of CI or whatever scripts shit is misleading. I see nothing other than typical boring enterprise/big gov crap here (which is fine, and expected).

tonymet 1y ago

[flagged]

prophesi 1y ago
Intuit and their millions in lobbying efforts might change the administration's thoughts on that.
BHSPitMonkey 1y ago
• IRS Direct File launched in 2024 after being created via the Biden administration's Inflation Reduction Act in 2024. • The Trump administration is preparing to sign into law a new budget that orders the immediate termination of the Direct File program (see SEC. 112207 "TASK FORCE ON THE TERMINATION OF DIRECT FILE"). • 18F, the agency within the federal government probably most responsible for championing and promoting open source development (and just all-around providing good digital services at a significantly lower cost), was eliminated by the Trump administration in March. I know that you are probably a busy person, like many of us here; Still, I would encourage you to take some time each week to become informed about what is (or isn't) happening in politics rather than just offering knee-jerk reactions based on partisan feelings. It really is important.
const_cast 1y ago
Except that Trump has already prevented us from using it. He axed it, beginning next tax season. It's not a boogie-man, Trump really does just suck. He's anti like, anything even good-adjacent.
lagniappe 1y ago
I see you've discovered the reddit-to-HN flywheel.

internet_points 1y ago

> Direct File also incorporates the Fact Graph, a declarative, XML-based knowledge graph data structure that is designed to reason about incomplete information, such as a partially completed tax return. The Fact Graph is written in the Scala programming language; it runs on the JVM on the backend and is transpiled via Scala.js to run on the client as well. Direct File's Fact Graph is not domain-specific, and it may be useful to revenue agencies and as a reference for business rules engine implementations.

MrLeap 1y ago
Interesting, I want to read more about this.
- uticus 1y ago
  https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44183845 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44183845
  - Groxx 1y ago
    Not sure an LLM summary is all that useful
timhigins 1y ago
The code that defines how the fact graph works is here: https://github.com/IRS-Public/direct-file/tree/main/direct-file/fact-graph-scala https://github.com/IRS-Public/direct-file/tree/main/direct-f... but the actual tax definitions that deal with facts and derived calculation are here: https://github.com/IRS-Public/direct-file/tree/main/direct-file/backend/src/main/resources/tax https://github.com/IRS-Public/direct-file/tree/main/direct-f... See for example the standard deduction and tax rate calculations https://github.com/IRS-Public/direct-file/blob/main/direct-file/backend/src/main/resources/tax/standardDeduction.xml https://github.com/IRS-Public/direct-file/blob/main/direct-f... https://github.com/IRS-Public/direct-file/blob/main/direct-file/backend/src/main/resources/tax/taxCalculations.xml https://github.com/IRS-Public/direct-file/blob/main/direct-f... I imagine these are based on the MeF (Modernized e-File) schemas because the system needs to transform the input data into XML MeF schemas to submit electronically to the MeF system (See https://www.irs.gov/e-file-providers/modernized-e-file-mef-schemas-and-business-rules https://www.irs.gov/e-file-providers/modernized-e-file-mef-s...)

deleted 1y ago

[deleted]

pimlottc 1y ago

Aside from the code, there's also a ton of great design documents and notes under /docs/design [0], including detailed process diagrams for many of the user flows (unfortunately not directly viewable online since they're within zip files; see flow1.zip and flow2.zip) 0: https://github.com/IRS-Public/direct-file/tree/main/docs/design https://github.com/IRS-Public/direct-file/tree/main/docs/des...

90s_dev 1y ago

Is this common in Java? https://github.com/IRS-Public/direct-file/blob/9dd76a786ea6928bab21b983f776518c2a328d50/direct-file/state-api/src/main/java/gov/irs/directfile/stateapi/controller/StateApiController.java#L184-L227 https://github.com/IRS-Public/direct-file/blob/9dd76a786ea69...

pjc50 1y ago
Is this what people have to do when they don't have the C# async/await autogenerated state machine?
- winrid 1y ago
  Yup. Although to be honest it probably doesn't need to be reactive.
koolba 1y ago
It is if you’re doing government style work and you want have a job for life creating code that nobody else can read. Or if you’re in the business of selling extremely wide aspect ratio monitors.
- tempest_ 1y ago
  It is nested sure but the entire thing fits on 1080p monitor
  - timewizard 1y ago
    Well... depending on your default level of zoom. After staring at code for 12 hours a day for a few decades my zoom is 125% by default.
    - 90s_dev 1y ago
      Careful, at this rate your zoom level will be an unreadable 900% after only a few centuries...

piker 1y ago

> libs Guys I knew it

WorldPeas 1y ago
fork this repo so you can own the libs

yonran 1y ago

What would it take for an individual or small business to run a version of this locally? To file, you need an MeF account with IRS; does the IRS grant those freely? And to import W2s and 1099s, it seems that there is a DataImportService interface but unfortunately there is no implementation and the APIs to IRS are not public. If the Biden administration wanted to break the tax software oligopoly, they should have focused on making the government’s own interfaces open.

ivanjermakov 1y ago

> The source code is only public because of federal law I doubt contributions are welcome

BrandoElFollito 1y ago

What is the core reason for the government in the US to not provide a simple online tax filing portal like we generally have in Europe. It is pre-filled with the known incomes so for the best majority of people filling their taxes is a 1 minute exercise. This also helps, I guess, to have the taxes flow in.

hoten 1y ago
lobbying on behalf of the tax filing industry additionally, the US has (one of?) the most complex tax systems in the world. In part b/c most of it is carve outs...on behalf of various lobbyist groups / catering to specific voting blocks.
- alemanek 1y ago
  That is still no excuse. The majority of the population of the US claims the standard deduction and has all their income in the form of W2 or 1099 which is reported to the IRS by the employer. Those people can be served by a return free filing system. The minority which have more complicated taxes can still file like they do today. But even adding on investment income and housing related deductions the IRS likely has enough information to calculate what is owed. We shouldn’t let perfect be the enemy of better. I know you weren’t arguing that point but just because the tax code is complex doesn’t mean it is complex for everyone’s situation
deleted 1y ago
[deleted]
weberer 1y ago
Entering your income is easy enough if you're a salaried employee with a W2 form. The time consuming part is searching for and entering deductions. The tax code is ridiculously complex and there are forms for all sorts of deductions.
- jonas21 1y ago
  90% of people take the standard deduction, which takes maybe 10 seconds to enter.

cookingmyserver 1y ago

I enjoyed walking through some of their docs which documented decisions and deliverables. Thought for sure it would have just been a dump of source code with little to no context.

vagab0nd 1y ago

Ok we now have "law is code". When can we have "code is law"? Write the code as source of truth and generate the law from it.

seattle_spring 1y ago
That's what a smart contract is meant to represent, and they get taken advantage of every single day.
timewizard 1y ago
The law has better properties when it comes to undefined behavior than code does.

colelyman 1y ago

I went to the link thinking that I could now file my taxes with the IRS through GitHub, which I honestly have mixed feelings about.

BHSPitMonkey 1y ago
That's an idea... Make a fork, add a file at taxpayers/${SSN}.yaml describing your return in terms of income/deductions/circumstances, make sure it lints successfully, and then submit a PR for the IRS to review. If it's merged, CI/CD initiates a bank payment/withdrawal. If you get audited, resolve the conflicts and update the PR.

thuanao 1y ago

In my experience the paper forms are so much easier and more reliable than using tax software. A pen and a form just works. No account logins and passwords, no janky UI, no advertisements, no issues saving your progress... The instructions are much better too. Each box is numbered and there's an instruction manual detailing what to put in that box. If you make mistakes the IRS will simply correct you.

pfg_ 1y ago
The problem I had with the papers is they don't tell you when you need to have another form. Guided question software will ask questions to determine if you need forms.

timhigins 1y ago

> Exempted Code > Not all source code, documentation and metadata used in the development of Direct File is included in this repository. Specifically, any code or data that is considered Personally Identifiable Information (PII), Federal Tax Information (FTI), Sensitive But Unclassified (SBU), or source code developed for National Security Systems (NSS), as defined in 40 U.S.C. § 11103, is exempt. Due to these restrictions, certain pieces of functionality have been removed or rewritten. Very curious about what these pieces are that were removed

dlcarrier 1y ago
It's probably a boilerplate notice put on all releases. Sometimes they aren't even allowed to explicitly state that something was excluded, so they have to put that notice on all releases, so there's no way to infer which releases have exclusions.

czhu12 1y ago

Given this project is being drained of resources by the new admin, is anyone in the know able to comment on how hard this would be to take, and stand up, as a competitor to turbo tax? Presumably, any Intuit competitors will be given a 10 year headstart worth many millions, maybe billions?

foolswisdom 1y ago
Is there a reason you'd need to do so? What is freetaxusa.com missing that direct file gives you (other than the fact that direct file is free and supported by the government itself)?
- TsiCClawOfLight 1y ago
  Expat support.
  - furyg3 1y ago
    If anyone has any tips for the most cost effective way for expats to file, please share them here. I'm doing it all by hand because I'm tired of going through the 'free' apps and entering in all my details, and when I get ready to file it end up being hundreds of dollars to file since the other forms (extra 1040 schedules, 2555, etc) are not included.
    - 1oooqooq 1y ago
      yes. and you have the right answer. download and print forms. no way around it. or pay $500 each year to the top 2.
- 1oooqooq 1y ago
  freetaxusa doesn't cover the cases for almost everyone here. ever bought stocks? out! also, you need to submit selfies and have a usa sim card from specific providers.
  - 1y ago

UncleOxidant 1y ago

> Please note: As of two weeks ago, I no longer work at the IRS. I am writing solely in my personal capacity. It's too bad the current Administration is going to kill DirectFile and has fired all the people who were working on it.

vjvjvjvjghv 1y ago

Weren't they also working on a system that would send you a prefilled return with all information filled in the IRS already has?

tomhow 1y ago

See also: Saying Goodbye - https://chrisgiven.com/2025/06/saying-goodbye/ https://chrisgiven.com/2025/06/saying-goodbye/

ronbenton 1y ago

Favorite quote(s) >But as I told the team as the end closed in, “We took a pipedream, and made it a policy choice.” No one can claim with a straight face that Direct File is impossible anymore; bringing it back requires only that our elected leaders make a different choice. >What I mourn the most, though, is the dissolution of the team, the disregard for the vast impact they were poised and eager to deliver. The team itself is what I am proudest of from my time working on Direct File. Their manic dedication to the mission. The care they consistently took to get it right. The trust and love they had for each other.

tomhow 1y ago
I moved this from https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44187512 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44187512
deleted 1y ago
[deleted]

delfugal 1y ago

[dead]

cebert 1y ago

This code base is clean and well-crafted. I appreciate the extensive documentation. It’s unfortunate that Direct File was affected by budget cuts.

nickthegreek 1y ago
budget cuts had nothing to do with it. this was a lobbied choice.

insane_dreamer 1y ago

I wonder whether Cash App's free filing service (used it for the first time last year and it was very good even for my somewhat complicated taxes) is based on this?

piracyrules 1y ago

[flagged]

piracyrules 1y ago

Let's not forget how IRS only goes after the small fishes in the pond. Billionaires get a free pass from them all the time.

Zambyte 1y ago

Why was the IRS-Public[0] group created for this, instead of using the existing irsgov[1] group? [0] https://github.com/IRS-Public https://github.com/IRS-Public [1] https://github.com/irsgov https://github.com/irsgov

bigon 1y ago

Wait, the USA/IRS is not providing a free platform for individuals to fill their tax?

PopAlongKid 1y ago
Anyone can download files for all the forms and schedules, then fill print and mail for the cost of postage.
- mdaniel 1y ago
  I can't tell if you're "/s" but this strikes me as "anyone can download the SMTP RFCs and roll their own mail server" but that's not the same as actually running a mail server due to the monstrous amount of non-functional requirements that have been applied to that space over the years To the best of my knowledge, the tax filer is responsible for knowing the law, which includes amendments made almost every Congressional session, the court rulings upon both of those things, the judicial meaning of the English words used in all that corpus, and then one can get into the pdfs and their printing and mailing. Or all of those lawyers and enrolled agents can be rented at tax time in order to outsource some of the liability, and thus that's how we end up with the current cesspool of a system we have
  - PopAlongKid 1y ago
    Very few taxpayers need to tread into the obscure corners of the tax code, regulations, court cases, and so on. In fact, the tax forms and accompanying instructions are written at a level that anyone with a high school education should be able to understand. Examples are often included, along with call-outs for "Tips" and "Caution" to highlight key points. Further, there are dozens of publications that go into more detail and cover probably 90% or more of all the scenarios one would encounter. Pub 17 in particular is a beginning-to-end handbook that covers Form 1040 and the common forms/schedules and the entire filing process, with references to other pubs when appropriate, again all written at a high-school level. These are available in both PDF and HTML formats. Recall that electronic filing has only been around for a few decades, so prior to that everyone used to fill and file on paper The IRS has long history of providing the necessary instructions to do so at a level accessible to the vast majority of users. It is also a fact that the tax software providers use these same instructions and publications as the specifications that their software must meet. Literally, they will hold up release of various forms for filing using their software until the IRS finalizes the accompanying form instructions.

elif 1y ago

Seems like an anti-pattern to involve so many unique human perspectives on who owes what. An authority should establish what taxes are owed objectively, and the system should just send out invoices. If you have a problem with that, build a robust appeal process. Essentially what we have now is an appeal process for every single person.

ted_dunning 1y ago
This ignores the reality that the authority in question doesn't have all of the necessary information. This isn't just a matter of reporting wages and such, it also involves decisions such as accounting information such as depreciation periods, business expenses and many other factors.
- kjkjadksj 1y ago
  Yet the audit arm is revenue positive so the system already works like this.

jsmo 1y ago

Thanks for sharing!

johnwatson11218 1y ago

Everyone is talking about having LLMs write software but what about having them delete code? That can be very hard in a legacy enterprise environment. I think dead code detection overlaps with security and that is a good way to sell that kind of code clean up. Having LLMs review your architecture is a fun exercise, being able to incorporate that feedback is a good measure for the dev teams.

monksy 1y ago

The fact graph service uses scala!

1-more 1y ago

IRS knows what a bifunctor is. What an amazing day https://github.com/IRS-Public/direct-file/blob/9dd76a786ea6928bab21b983f776518c2a328d50/direct-file/fact-graph-scala/js/src/main/scala/gov/irs/factgraph/monads/JSEither.scala#L28-L38 https://github.com/IRS-Public/direct-file/blob/9dd76a786ea69...