A government program made tax filing free and more efficient. Musk and DOGE may get rid of it anyway

WASHINGTON — Mia Francis, a 22-year-old barista from Boston, filed her taxes on her own this year for the first time, using a free government tax filing program that made it easy because it did most of the work for her. Francis said it took 45 minutes to finish her taxes with the IRS Direct File program, an electronic tax return filing system that the IRS made permanent last year and that has rolled out to 25 states. If we continue to invest in it, both taxpayers and the IRS can benefit.” Musk posted last month on his social media site that he had “deleted” 18F, a government agency that worked on technology projects such as the IRS’ Direct File program. But it should not replace other options.” Derrick Plummer, a spokesperson for Intuit, one of the country’s largest commercial tax preparation firms, said free tax preparation had been available for years before Direct File came along. “I have to file my taxes, and I don’t want to be put in a situation where, in order to file my taxes, I have to pay to get the help I need because I’m not a professional tax preparer.” Grover Norquist, president of Americans for Tax Reform, said the IRS never got explicit permission from Congress to create the Direct File system.