Today, less than 24 hours after the deadline for Americans to pay their 2024 taxes, reporting from the Associated Press confirmed that the Trump Administration plans to eliminate Direct File, a free, easy-to-use tool that allowed taxpayers to file their taxes directly with the IRS and represented government efficiency at work. Recent polling from Groundwork Action and Data for Progress showed that Direct File was overwhelmingly popular among voters, with 82% of respondents supporting the expansion of Direct File to all Americans.
Groundwork Collaborative Senior Fellow Kitty Richards released the following statement:
“Killing Direct File is the clearest proof yet that DOGE was never about making government more efficient,” said Kitty Richards, Senior Fellow at Groundwork Collaborative. “Direct File was a wildly popular program that promised to make tax season easier and cheaper for working families and less costly for the government. Direct File is the exact kind of smart, consumer-oriented government innovation that American taxpayers appreciate, which is why President Trump and Elon Musk are destroying it.
“The Trump/Musk agenda at the IRS is to help billionaires avoid paying what they owe, make it more painful for honest taxpayers to file their returns, and enrich the corporations that have been trying to take down Direct File since it launched.”
Email press@groundworkcollaborative.org to speak with a Groundwork expert about Direct File.