Caffeinated Politics

One of the many reasons people approved of President Joe Biden was due to the much-needed Direct File program run by the IRS. It was a free online program that allowed taxpayers to submit federal returns directly without paying for commercial software or tax preparation businesses to do the work. I thought the program was one where a message was being sent to all of us. The message being that the government could serve its citizens directly, without forcing them through the often too-greedy hands of private corporations. Data showed that millions of Americans used the free, simple, and secure method to file their taxes online. No hidden fees, no slimy upsells, just an easy-to-access, straightforward tool designed to save time, money, and frustration. What possibly could be wrong with such a solution for filing taxes?

Well, how would the tax-prep industry reap profits from taxpayers if there were a governmental program that benefited the general public? So, Donald Trump has scrapped Direct File. The decision is a deliberate rollback of progress, one that leaves ordinary taxpayers like your home and mine holding the bill.

With this program ended, taxpayers have two options available to them. They can either pay private companies like TurboTax or H&R Block, whose business model depends on extracting fees from a process that should be free, or struggle with clunky “free” alternatives, which are notoriously difficult to navigate, riddled with eligibility traps, and often designed to funnel users into paid products anyway. Both of these bad options were the reason Direct File was instituted in the first place.

Trump decided his rich friends in the tax prep world needed profits more than the rank-and-file taxpayers. You know, the voters who the 2024 GOP nominee convinced with con-artist mastery would look out for them if he were elected to the White House.

The tax-prep giants lobbied hard against Direct File, fearing it would erode their profits. As such, the losers are clear to spot. If you do not know who they are, simply look in a mirror. Meanwhile, wealthier Americans will barely notice the change; they already outsource their tax headaches. But for the majority, this is another reminder that the system is tilted against them.

Trump’s decision fits what is now a most familiar pattern of siding with corporate interests over public ones. Ending Direct File is not about efficiency or fiscal prudence. It is about protecting a lucrative industry from competition, even when that competition is simply the government offering its citizens a fair deal. Well, Trump cannot abide that! This is perhaps the most glaring example of how policy can be bent to serve the few at the expense of the many.

I firmly believe in paying taxes as they are one of the prices of our citizenship. But I reject making the process of filing tax returns harder, more expensive, and more confusing. I like to think about policy creation and the way it is meant to operate. Ending Direct File is not just bad policy, it is nonsensical. It also sends a very bad message from the White House to the nation. It says to ordinary Americans that their time and money matter less than greedy corporate profit margins.

As a broad question to ponder at the end of this post, take a moment and ask yourself if the government should serve its people directly, or do you believe it should serve as a broker for private interests.