cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/25117460
Summary
Elon Musk claimed on X that he eliminated the IRS team responsible for the “Direct File” program, which allows Americans to file taxes online for free.
His statement came in response to a right-wing influencer criticizing the program as government overreach.
However, the Treasury Department confirms that the Direct File system remains active, offering free tax filing with customer support.
The program, available in English and Spanish, is optional, allowing taxpayers to choose between using it or filing their taxes manually.
A right-wing MAGA influencer called the “direct file” tax program a "far left /…/
Here in Estonia, the castle of “far left” in Europe (shh, don’t spoil the joke, comrades, we want them to think we’re dark red here ;) )…
…for something like 15 years already, you file your taxes like this:
- some day in February, your internet bank reminds you to send a report to the tax office
- you click “send”
- some day in February, you read in a newspaper that “you can file your taxes now”
- you open up emta.ee, log in with your ID card, and see a pre-filled declaration
- if you’re lucky (99% are), it’s been filled correctly and you click “confirm”, otherwise you click “edit”
- you get to see if you have returns or need to pay extra
- if you have returns, you can choose if you want the money (typically if it’s big, you do) or want to donate the small change to a non-profit
It typically takes about 15 minutes.
If it’s a bad year and the automatically filled declaration was incorrect, things will differ of course - then you wait until next winter for a court to resolve the dispute. If you can write a complaint in legalese, it costs about 20 €, but if you need a lawyer, you shell out real money. I’ve had a bad year once. Most people never have one.
Is he heavily invested in TurboTax or something?
Nothing will meaningfully improve until the rich fear for their lives
How? If things get too hot here, they’ll just move to another country. Oh… I see now. But then that’s just passing our problems onto someone else like those South Africa bastards did.
They already do, thats why they’re doing this to government, which they fear. They need to fear public reprisal
You’d think that if DOGE was really DOGE that this is the exact kind of thing they’d double down on and make really good, saving everyone shit load of money.
Oh, you see, you fucked up like… three words into your comment
You’d think that’s the case, if you thought saving money or helping average Americans was actually their goal. The American government is being carved up as fast as they can get away with it. Gotta free up cash to give billionaires more tax cuts!
They also learned from the wall. Can’t pay to deport 10-20 million for free. Gotta enact tariffs and just stop paying for anything they can get away with.
Don’t forget… Eliminating any government oversight that might affect their business interests…
And eliminating any funding they can for media that will speak against them.
Edit: these people are directly tanking the platform Mr. Rogers had. The magic school bus, sesame Street, Arthur, Clifford, Barney, Reading Rainbow… They come from PBS, which is under attack by Elon Musk and Donald Trump
I get advertisements trying to give free pamphlets to kids about what Trump has done for our country and how he is saving it. He’s looking for the fucking Hitler Youth. Period
You mean instead of “deleting” it right?
Ya, don’t delete, make it even better and save even more money for everyone
Ok. For a second I wanted to down vote because I thought you meant they should double down on what they did.
Thanks for asking for clarification first!
“Elon Musk claimed on X that he eliminated the IRS team responsible for the “Direct File” program, which allows Americans to file taxes online for free”
“However, the Treasury Department confirms that the Direct File system remains active, offering free tax filing with customer support”
Big story. Is every tweet going to be a shocking story? Isn’t that beneficial to the media who done nothing / helped install theese morons?
The sooner average Americans realize that these people are America’s enemies, the sooner we can do something about it.
So you are saying we better not wait standing up?
The IRS?
Wow! Holy shit!
How the hell does this lower costs?
right-wing influencer criticizing the program as government overreach.
So the right is against self-service now? wtf
They’re against the slaves not using TurboTax.
So the right is against self-service now? wtf
You may want to look into Grover Norquist and his organisation Americans for Tax Reform. It is one of the most influential political lobbying groups in the United States, and it has the support of essentially the entire republican party. They essentially consider tax to be evil on principle and ask every politician to sign a pledge opposing any tax hike.
ATR is strongly against automatic filing, as they want to keep taxes difficult and complicated to stoke anti-tax sentiment. That is to say, they fear that if filing tax is easier, citizens would be less likely to fight taxes in the way that the ATR wants (mostly they like a low flat tax, because it’s simple and good for rich people).
This version of the right wing is against any service provided to the public for free which their own companies could profit from by charging for it. And they also, as a matter of principle, believe that the poor should be punished, and punished again.
So the right is against self-service now? wtf
Why are looking for coherence in their ideology? They’ve never made any indication that they are ideological consistent. Its projection on our part to do so, and the constant exacerbation at the obvious and consistent conclusion is tiresome.
I find it useful to look for ways to make their arguments coherent. What’s the underlying motivation where their actions make sense?
In this case, it makes a lot of sense if they’re in favor of billionaires profiting off something currently being provided by the government. In other cases (and somewhat on this one, too), “cruelty is the point” is what gets you there.
yes because it takes money away from companies like intuit and taxact and hrblock… ,sarcasm.
So the right is against self-service now?
No, fascists are. It just so happens that the right are fascists.
Cruelty is the point. The goal is to make the lives of impoverished people harder.
Cool so I’m not doing my taxes again this year
His statement came in response to a right-wing influencer criticizing the program as government overreach.
… HOW??? This movement simply has no real agenda or philosophy - they just want to burn everything down.
The government providing a free service that private companies charge for is considered overreach by the wealthy elite who stand to gain from holding a monopoly over access to a necessary thing.
This movement simply has no real agenda or philosophy - they just want to burn everything down.
That is the agenda
Sorry - I don’t mean “agenda” in the weird meaningless pejorative way that partisans use it but rather in the more traditional “plan of things to be done” manner. Like - these people have no problem statement with “here is how we will fix it”.
Yes, causing chaos is part of their “plan of things to be done.”
If you want to know their agenda, read Project 2025.
Private companies and consultants make millions on tax advice. Wrongly filed tax returns result in fines. Need I continue?
I took what you said as the traditional meaning, there is no “fixing” unless destruction is fixing. Their “agenda”, imo, is to tear down as much as possible, crash the economy, then buy up everything that they can; housing, businesses, etc
They literally ran on dismantling our government and the majority of voting Americans voted for them.
For the first time in my life I’m seriously considering getting citizenship elsewhere. Nothing good can happen for the future of this nation with a populace that stupid.
It’s over.
The slimmest majority of the minority of Americans who voted
Anyone of voting age that didn’t vote is just as bad as anyone that voted for this.
There’s your supermajority of stupid Americans.
Disclaimer: I don’t agree with this but providing a possible rationale. They believe the government is overreaching because “easy” tax filing has been privatized and it would harm those businesses. Never mind those businesses harm people
That seems a reasonable guess…
That’s the agenda. Burn everything down.
Have you ever seen someone on social media who CLEARLY did not read the post they are responding to but saw a mention of AI or the word “implication” and posted the same tired old meme for points? And then notice that actually works because the vast majority of the internet doesn’t want to discuss anything and just want to giggle at their comfort memes?
It is like that. Except they also want to enslave all lgbtq+ folk, brown people, and women. All while lining their pockets.
I think I’ll skip paying taxes this year, my religion states I cannot support terrorist groups.
You probably already pay taxes. Filing your taxes usually just helps dial in if you paid a bit too much or too little.
Not religious, but my ethics, and laws against aiding and abetting should also apply.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conscientious_objection_to_military_taxation
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religious_Freedom_Peace_Tax_Fund_Act
but also: Office of Chief Counsel Internal Revenue Service Memorandum https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-lafa/20133303f.pdf
Good luck with that.
But, in all seriousness: Everyone should do their taxes ASAP. If you are due a refund? File very quickly. If you owe money? Wait until the last possible minute. Because there are decent odds that we don’t have an IRS after a month or two of this…
That said, DO make it a point to file state taxes regardless since those actually go toward things that, even in red states, are focused on the populace.
Can’t it also later be argued that it’s uncertain and unclear what’s there or not, since that imbecile is running around yanking out wires of the government like a ketamine fueled chimp.
Casting doubt on the sanctity of the government’s records… I’d say that would go through courts for years.
The government shuts down immediately of it stops drafting from our paychecks. You can be assured that whatever happens, that will continue.
If that stops then there are going to be other more pressing issues.
To late he just got rid of what takes to do our fucking taxes. I REFUSE TO USE TURBOTAX OR HR BLOCK OR ANY OTHER PREDATORY TAX FILING COMPANY.
Guess no refund for us and no child tax credit.
Btw what the fuck is Congress doing? This motherfucker should not be able to do any of this, yet no one stopping him.
Isn’t freetaxusa still good?
Has for 2 years so far.
Btw what the fuck is Congress doing?
Republicans? Sucking a lot Trump, Musk, and any other billionaire’s dick.
Democrats? Completely self-sabotaging any attempt to get any opposition going.
I REFUSE TO USE TURBOTAX OR HR BLOCK OR ANY OTHER PREDATORY TAX FILING COMPANY.
Where been doing my taxes. Thanks for the link.
You can file by paper
You do you. Personally, I want to get my money while I still can. But if you would rather throw away you and your children’s money then … 'kay.
Because there are basically 3 outcomes for the IRS at this point
- musk et al completely destroy it and insist that income tax is no longer a thing and only sales tax exists. I forget if this is part of project 2025 but it is something republicans have been arguing for decades because it predominantly hurts lower income households
- Democrats do their fucking job and intervene and we file taxes normally
- musk et al completely compromise the IRS and make it a point to attack “the little guy” so they can insist they are hard on crime while actively ignoring all their cronies who refuse to ever pay taxes again.
And if you truly refuse to use any software? You can file by hand. I did back in college when I couldn’t afford even fricking turbotax.
Democrats cannot fix this. Perhaps you lived under a rock, but they lost power in all branches of government. Further, whether the actions by Musk violate the constitution is up for review by the courts, not congress. Remember who is in charge there? People warned that electing Trump would end Democracy, but I guess they were just scaremongering.
yet no one stopping him.
Turns out America is weak as fuck. We’re only good at applying force when it comes to other nations.
The article goes on to mention he is either lying or doesn’t know what he is talking about as the system is very much still in place. It could be either, and likely it’s both, that he doesn’t know enough to be sure if he did or not, but would be ok if it turns out to be a lie anyway.
I use cash app and it’s free, or at least it was last year.
Cash App Taxes is still free 👍
I’m still waiting on two forms that the companies say won’t be available till 2/28. Otherwise I’m ready to submit.
Plus I suspect the states will outlast the feds at this point. With maybe the sole exception of Utah, and that has more to do with the fact that the nuttier Mormons have a weird fucked up prophecy where theyll save America in its dying days or some shit.
Everybody with a 1099 should just refuse to pay taxes.
Oh man.
In Germany this would mean dismantling the only functioning digital government service. Haha.
Removed by mod
Bluesky will delete X, but give him time.
Then they’ll become X eventually.
That’s fine. I wasn’t planning to pay taxes to a fascist government anyway.
Uh, if you live in the US and aren’t super rich, then good luck with that.
Change my withholding to $0 and go on about my life.
