this post was submitted on 04 Jun 2025
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The IRS Tax Filing Software TurboTax Is Trying to Kill Just Got Open Sourced (www.404media.co)
submitted 2 days ago by DesertDwellingWeirdo@lemmy.world to c/technology@lemmy.world
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[–] eager_eagle@lemmy.world 145 points 2 days ago (3 children)

Repo: https://github.com/IRS-Public/direct-file

[–] dhork@lemmy.world 72 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (2 children)

Hurry up and clone that ASAP, this is gonna get taken down once DOGE realizes what it is

[–] ricecake@sh.itjust.works 51 points 2 days ago (2 children)

More likely they'll just turn off or unpublish the API that it depends on.

[–] catloaf@lemm.ee 10 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Is that even available right now? Usually for this type of thing you need API keys, which are not included, nor available at all.

[–] bdonvr@thelemmy.club 9 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Direct File interprets the United States' Internal Revenue Code (26 USC) as plain language questions, the answers to which should be known to taxpayers without need of external instructions or publications. Taxpayers' answers are then translated into standard tax forms and transmitted to the IRS's Modernized e-File (MeF) API, which is available for authorized public use

[–] Initiateofthevoid@lemmy.dbzer0.com 7 points 2 days ago (1 children)

So before the API it still generates everything you need to mail in the forms?

[–] bdonvr@thelemmy.club 3 points 2 days ago

Probably. It would need to be updated with new laws and rules though.

[–] errer@lemmy.world 4 points 2 days ago (3 children)

Recreating the API seems doable? If we can recreate dead MMO servers…

[–] muusemuuse@lemm.ee 18 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Are you comparing online game servers to the American tax system? Because I really want a ban.

[–] GiuseppeAndTheYeti@midwest.social 2 points 2 days ago

What really pisses me off is that their anti-cheat forces me to use dogeOS

[–] ricecake@sh.itjust.works 6 points 2 days ago

Well, you probably could. Issue is that you can't self host the IRS. If they aren't running the service that accepts the data there isn't much you can do.

[–] bdonvr@thelemmy.club 3 points 2 days ago

Direct File interprets the United States' Internal Revenue Code (26 USC) as plain language questions, the answers to which should be known to taxpayers without need of external instructions or publications. Taxpayers' answers are then translated into standard tax forms and transmitted to the IRS's Modernized e-File (MeF) API, which is available for authorized public use

[–] scott@lemmy.org 2 points 2 days ago

That was my thought too and I did so but it's been up for over a week now.

[–] sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works 2 points 1 day ago

Comment from the first PR:

because this is the first pull request and something many people will see, I would like to say that I learned from a former project manager at the IRS that development on Direct File has stopped since January. the source code is only public because of federal law. it's not likely that this is going to be merged but it's possible that the components of Direct File might be used elsewhere

Don't get your hopes up too much.

[–] Kowowow@lemmy.ca 4 points 2 days ago (3 children)

I wonder if this could be altered to work for other countries

[–] gian@lemmy.grys.it 3 points 1 day ago (1 children)

It would be nice but I think it is not really possible. Too many difference in the laws I suppose.

[–] sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works 2 points 1 day ago

Yeah, tax software is hyper-tailored to the tax law, which is why it needs to get an update every year.

[–] iknowitwheniseeit@lemmynsfw.com 7 points 2 days ago (1 children)

We've already got free software for filing taxes, kthxbye!

[–] Kowowow@lemmy.ca 1 points 2 days ago

Oh that's good to know what's it's called

[–] SabinStargem@lemmy.today 0 points 2 days ago

I can see the EU funding it. This could be a measure to allow Blue States circumvent the federal system - a CaliTAX, AlohaTAX, ect. This would be vital during a civil war scenario, so that the Blue States can having working taxation systems without having to redo everything.