Fighting for Real Improvements for Taxpayers

For many Americans filing taxes can be painstaking and time-consuming. Poor customer service and outdated technology systems at the IRS contribute to a lack of transparency and threaten to turn the process into a dreaded ritual every tax season. Streamlining the process to empower Americans to more easily file their taxes is an important goal.

I have worked diligently on this issue as a member of the Ways and Means Committee. It is the reason I support authorized programs to minimize the complications and cost of tax filing for Americans, such as IRS Free File. Unfortunately, there is a lack of awareness of existing programs to make affordable tax preparation available to taxpayers. Furthermore, many misconceptions surround a new in-house tax preparation program introduced under the previous presidential administration called IRS Direct File.

While Direct File may seem well-intentioned, the program’s conflict of interest is glaring. Its preparatory function effectively makes the IRS sole tax preparer, filer, and enforcer all in one when it is used. Taken with a broader trend of federal overreach into the financial privacy of families and small businesses under the last administration, I have serious concerns with granting the IRS the power to predetermine and tell Americans what they owe, then stifle good faith disagreement under threat of burdensome audits.

Just as troubling, the Direct File program was never authorized by law nor through regulation. Democrats gave the IRS $15 million in 2022 to study and report to Congress on the feasibility, taxpayer interest, and cost of a direct e-file tax return system. However, Congress has never provided for implementation of such a program by law. I repeatedly asked then-IRS Commissioner Danny Werfel in a Ways and Means hearing and in writing to account for the statutory basis for Direct File rollout. He was unable to do so.

The consequences of this unlawful lack of accountability have been serious. In March 2025, the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration reported only about one-third of taxpayers who created a Direct File account submitted a tax return that was accepted by the system. Furthermore, the report found the IRS underestimated the true cost of the program by nearly 36 percent. Recent estimates found the program costs well over $500 per taxpayer to operate while private sector alternatives offer better services at no cost to the government.

For these reasons, I supported inclusion of language based on my FAIR PREP Act in the legislative package passed by the House last week to end the Direct File program. 

There are many existing low and no-cost options for those who may find it difficult to afford preparation services. Many private companies offer free services, and the IRS Free File program is available to Americans with an adjusted gross income of $84,000 or less. Charitable and volunteer services such as the IRS’ Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) and Tax Counseling for the Elderly (TCE) are also available. Additionally, a provision in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act passed by the House would instruct the IRS to develop a new public-private partnership to build on Free File and create a free filing program available to a majority of taxpayers.

All this makes Direct File unauthorized, wasteful, and redundant. Notwithstanding its poor record of customer service and failure to modernize its data systems, the agency tasked with collecting federal revenue simply should not have the power to predetermine and dictate to Americans what they owe in taxes. Most Americans work hard to make an honest living. They pay their taxes and aren’t trying to cheat the system. The federal government should not advance unpopular, inefficient programs in the place of improvements to make the IRS more effective and simplify the tax filing process.

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