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Musk says he 'deleted' IRS easy filing team that let Americans file taxes for free online (www.rawstory.com)

submitted 12 hours ago by floofloof to c/[email protected]

119 comments fedilink hide all child comments

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.

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[–] [email protected] 17 points 3 hours ago* (last edited 3 hours ago) (3 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 23 minutes ago

In Hungary, the country of the far left Orbán quasi-dictatorship, the tax filing process is if you are an employee, in May you go to the website and click okay if you're happy with it. If you forget, it's just an implied acceptance of what you've seen, so most people never do anything and some don't even know how to.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 16 minutes ago

Does everyone have to file taxes? In the UK, unless you're renting a property or otherwise have some income on the side like that, you don't file taxes at all, it's just all done automatically.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 hours ago

American here, I didn't work this year (stay at home parent) and we only need to file my wife's taxes. If it goes smoothly it'll take an hour, minimum, and we're usually unsure if we filed it all out correctly...