Opinion | House Republicans wants Trump to make the IRS less helpful to taxpayers

In the fall of 2023, the Internal Revenue Service announced a pilot program that would allow some Americans to file their taxes directly to the agency — for free. The Direct File service managed to go against at least a half-dozen federal government stereotypes: it was new and novel in a system that loathes change; it allowed people to be more efficient with their time; and the people who used it this past tax season had plenty of good things to say about their experience. In May, the IRS said the program would be expanded and made permanent.

But of course, there are Republicans who would like nothing more than to strangle a popular government initiative in its cradle. In a letter to President-elect Donald Trump, more than two dozen House GOP members called on him to end the program through executive order once he takes office. If he heeds their request, they’ll have succeeded in ending a successful program before Americans get used to the idea that tax season need not be such a headache.

The letter effort was spearheaded by Reps. Adrian Smith of Nebraska and Chuck Edwards of North Carolina. “Under the guise of offering a convenient “free-to-file” alternative preparation service, the IRS asserts itself as the tax assessor, collector, preparer, and enforcer — all in one — when the program is used,” they fret before hinting that the IRS might actively cheat taxpayers out of their money:

This isn’t the first time that these two lawmakers have taken direct fire at Direct File. They introduced a similar bill earlier this year and have joined their colleagues in denouncing the Biden administration’s investment in the IRS despite it being a net savings for taxpayers. It’s also worth noting that the letter writers cc’ed billionaire budget bros Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, in hopes of putting Direct File in the crosshairs of their cockamamie cost-cutting commission.

It should be said that the program that these Republicans are railing against provides just the bare minimum of service from the IRS. Direct File can only handle filings from people with the most straightforward returns, like taxpayers who only have a single source of income from a W-2 and take the standard deduction. The system can’t process filings from gig economy workers, who companies consider to be self-employed contractors, let alone those in the kind of complex financial situation that would require multiple accountants.

Moreover, even the Direct File system is still wildly inefficient compared to European countries that do much more of the work for their taxpayers than the IRS does for Americans. Though the IRS already has data to show how much you should owe each year, the agency leaves it to you to figure it out if the math lines up. The consequences for getting it wrong are dire, which makes for exactly the kind of system a reasonable person would expect Musk and Ramaswamy’s pro-government efficiency to want to improve.

But despite all that, the Direct File system is a step in the right direction given the amount of dread people feel over filing their taxes each year. A 2013 Pew Research study found that over half of Americans dislike — or downright hate — doing their taxes each year. Small wonder when the IRS’ own data shows that the average American spends roughly 13 hours preparing their 1040 form each year. Add in the money that many people pay to file both their federal and state taxes together online and you can see how anything that will streamline the process reduce that burden is a major boon for taxpayers.

It feels likely then that Smith and Edwards are trying to ingratiate themselves with wealthier Americans who would stand to benefit more from a less popular IRS. The more friction in the system, the more visible of a target the IRS becomes for average Americans; the more people who are frustrated with the IRS, the better their case for cutting even more taxes for the wealthy. It also doesn’t hurt to be in the good graces of massive tax preparation companies like Intuit, which have spent years and millions of dollars to ensure that filing taxes is as painful a process as possible. Among the reforms they blocked was a plan to go further than Direct File, letting many taxpayers file pre-populated forms for free.

The net effect is that there’s no upside to murdering Direct File ahead of tax season beyond making the federal government less responsive and useful in the eyes of Americans. Republicans can falsely claim that they’re trying to save taxpayers’ money from the clutches of the IRS. It’s clear what they’re really trying to claw back is a massive refund of Americans’ time and energy in the name of making everything a little bit worse.