John,

Did you see Elizabeth Warren’s email below?

Each year, the American people spend, on average, $200 and 11 hours of our time filing our taxes through paid tax filing services. In fact, tax filing is now a billion-dollar industry in the United States, led by tax prep companies like Intuit and H&R Block that have spent millions of dollars lobbying the government to prevent the IRS from providing a free tax filing program.

Senator Warren has a new bill that will make it quick, easy, and free to file our taxes. Click here to become a grassroots co-signer of Elizabeth Warren’s Tax Filing Simplification Act today!

Whether you’re filing your taxes or requesting an extension, the IRS website often directs you to corporate websites that have hidden charges and fees―and that simply don’t work well.

I know about this personally. The night before my taxes had to be filed on April 18 I had to seek an extension. I did an online search and was inundated with corporate-run free-file solicitations. I avoided them like the plague and searched for the IRS’s free-file service. Lo and behold the IRS directed me to 3 or 4 corporate websites. So I was forced to use one of them, and it was a nightmare. At the end (after a half hour) I was not even clear that my filing for the extension went through―the company claimed I would get a confirmation email from the IRS but it never came. If I had this experience after 10 years working on tax issues, imagine what the average taxpayer goes through―and how easily they can be duped.

So, please help us demand Congress invest in the IRS and provide the American people with free and easy-to-use resources so we’re not reliant on greedy corporations in order to file our taxes.

Thank you,

Frank Clemente
Executive Director
Americans for Tax Fairness Action Fund

-- Sen. Warren's email --

John,

Last week, millions of people filed their annual tax returns, spending an average of 11 hours and $200 on paid filing services.[1]

But did you know you could be filing your taxes for free? Yep, for free. We just need a fully funded IRS to do it. Let me break it down:

Every year, when your W2s and 1099s come in the mail, your employer has already sent a copy to the government. So it’s no secret: They already know how much you make before you file your taxes.

So instead of all the scrambling, calculating, and late nights, the IRS could simply send you a pre-filled tax form based on information they already have. You’d confirm the information, and send it back. A free filing system would take the headache—and the expense—out of doing your taxes.

I’ve got a new bill that will make it a whole lot easier for people to file their taxes, save taxpayers some serious time and money, and increase access to critical benefits like the Child Tax Credit and Earned Income Tax Credit. But Washington needs to hear that the American people are demanding action.

Add your name today as a grassroots co-sponsor of my Tax Filing Simplification Act to make tax filing free and easy.

So why hasn’t it already been done? Well, for years, tax prep companies like Intuit and H&R Block spent millions lobbying the government to stop the IRS from providing an easy-to-use Free File option. Republicans buddied up with them too, demanding that the agency stop “competing” with private companies. Oh brother.

So these corporations brokered a deal—a deal that was good for them, and lousy for us. They promised to offer low-income Americans free tax prep software, and in exchange, the IRS wouldn’t make a free filing program of their own, for everyone.

Since then, H&R Block and Intuit have undermined their own free filing options—hiding them from search engine results and using slick design to trick clients into paying more. Because let’s be clear: These flimsy, free options were never meant to be easy or useful.

The consequence? Tax filing is now a billion-dollar industry in the United States. And—I hope you’re sitting down for this—free filing has been implemented in just about every other country in the world. We are WAY behind.

But there’s hope to turn the tide. The Biden administration is pushing for an $80 billion funding boost to the IRS over the next 10 years. With proper funding, the agency could join the rest of the world in offering a free, easy-to-use service for all Americans to file their taxes.

In fact, my Tax Filing Simplification Act lays out all the steps for this. But the administration already has the authority to do it, and we'll keep working on getting the funding in future legislation.

We have the tools to do this now, and the benefits would be huge. We just need to fight for it, side by side.

John, add your name as a grassroots co-sponsor of my Tax Filing Simplification Act and help build the movement to beat the corporate tax prep lobby.

Together—by growing our grassroots movement and raising our voices—we can unrig our tax code, put Washington on the side of working people, and stop billionaires and giant corporations from freeloading off everybody else.

Thanks for being a part of this,

Elizabeth Warren

[1] "1040 (and 1040-SR) Instructions, Tax Year 2021," Internal Revenue Service