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Dear John,
With the 4th of July holiday weekend in full swing, this is a great time to talk about taxes -- because paying your taxes is patriotic. It’s also critical to our country’s survival.
Now, suppose you could file your taxes online, for free, directly to the IRS, with no corporate middleman to charge you additional fees, not to mention possibly even selling your private information?
Starting next year, you can -- if your governor chooses to opt in to the system for your state, that is!
The pilot program this year, known as “Direct File,” was active in 12 states. It was so successful, the IRS is now potentially expanding it to all 50 states -- but for each state, it depends on the governor’s approval.
For years, American taxpayers have been offered supposedly “free” tax preparation options by private companies; but in classic “bait and switch” fashion, they are then lured into more complex software packages and services that can cost $200 or more.
When you add it all up, Americans spend 2 billion hours a year on tax preparation, at a cumulative cost of over $30 billion a year. The taxpayers most vulnerable to these strategies are marginalized, lower-income communities.
Contact your governor today to demand they make Direct File available to all taxpayers in your state! Write your letter now to demand access to free, online tax filing with no corporate middleman.
If you live in one of the 12 states that had access to Direct File last year (Arizona, California, Florida, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York, Nevada, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Washington, and Wyoming), we have another letter with a “Thank You” message for your governor.
TurboTax and H&R Block have hidden Free File from online search engines for years, instead offering their own supposedly “free” versions with built-in fees for required tasks.
Third-party tax preparers have played too loose and free with taxpayers’ personal information. In 2023 TaxAct, TaxSlayer, and H&R Block illegally shared taxpayers’ personal financial data with Google, Facebook, and Instagram.
One of the biggest benefits of Direct File is that it will prevent tax preparation corporations from conspiring to sell our personal information to the world’s biggest tech giants.
The IRS Direct File system must also be coordinated with state and local tax systems, or we could end up re-inviting the middleman tax preparer corporations back in, just so we can pay our state taxes.
Contact your governor and insist your state gets access to Direct File.
Thank you for taking action today. And I hope you continue to enjoy this patriotic holiday celebrating American independence and freedom.
Robert Reich
Inequality Media Civic Action
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