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Direct File went live on January 29, 2024. It went dark on November 5, 2025. Left: Direct File as of November 4, 2025. Right: Direct File today. The IRS is apparently tearing up its commitment that taxpayers would be able to access their data for three years. Now taxpayers’ only options are to access a transcript online (basically a printout from the IRS mainframe) or to file Form 4506 and pay the…
A personal update.
With the federal government abandoning Direct File for now, many state leaders are, admirably, looking for ways to keep the party going. But as the field works to advance the cause of equitable tax system access, it’s important to remember that our goal isn’t just to keep Direct Filing. Our goal is to keep making the sort of transformative progress that Direct File showed was possible: delighted…
I’ve been deliberately steering clear of using this space to react to current events. My last few months in government were discombobulating and highly reactive, and I’ve been trying to get enough distance to be able to think again. So although I’m doing plenty of raging against the calamities of the present moment, I’m not in a place to channel that rage into writing anything of use. However, I…
Judge Carlton Reeves of the Southern District of Mississippi has written some real bangers in his career, but his magnum opus might be his 2018 opinion in Boatner v. Berryhill, an appeal of the Social Security Administration’s denial of disability benefits for a Mississippi man named Carl Boatner. Judge Reeves finds that Social Security wrongly denied Boatner’s claim. The 26 page decision spends…
Government writing is usually stripped of all personality, so I like it when civil servants let loose in times of stress. It shows that the faceless bureaucracy is just people trying their best. Here’s how Social Security’s Lancaster, California district office described the disastrous launch of the Supplemental Security Income (SSI) program on January 1, 1974, in an official report to Washington.…
Three events that made Direct File possible.
James R. McTigue, Jr.: IRS officials were unable to show us that they had independently documented measurable goals or objectives to manage the outcomes of its identity-proofing program. According to federal internal control standards, officials should define objectives clearly to enable the identification of risks and define risk tolerances. Without independently established measures and goals,…
So last week’s post was not so subtly a provocation for the “just add AI” approach to government. But hey, now that I’ve already done the work of sussing out what’s going on and writing it out in detail, let’s add AI and see what happens. I asked ChatGPT to read the post and suggest a few ways the algorithm could be improved. Thanks for sharing the post. It’s a rich and thoughtful deep dive into a…
A deep dive on a single government algorithm.
Alex Mark: The tax code contains some pretty crazy edge cases that required a good amount of effort to build and test. Two of my favorite tax rules are the different ways to calculate whether the taxpayer was 65 or older during the tax year — people over 65 receive a greater standard deduction, but they also phase out of eligibility for EITC if they don’t have qualifying children. Confusingly,…
Nina Olson and Gabriel Zucker: …the team continued to evaluate Direct File, as it had all along, preparing a comprehensive year-two report on its work. We filed a Freedom of Information Act request for that evaluation, and this week received Direct File’s 2025 season-end filing report. It tells an inspiring story of a product genuinely transforming tax administration in America, a story made…
Dan Sinker: In the Who Cares Era, the most radical thing you can do is care. In a moment where machines churn out mediocrity, make something yourself. Make it imperfect. Make it rough. Just make it. At a time where the government’s uncaring boot is pressing down on all of our necks, the best way to fight back is to care. Care loudly. Tell others. Get going. At last week’s Code for America Summit ,…
Some of the deaths of Direct File.
Speaking of Merici, I’ve been meaning to reupload this video from a July 2024 event, where she and I spoke about lessons learned from the Direct File pilot. The original was taken down in January 2025 due to the transition.
Economic Security Project (ESP) announces a new fellowship focused on the future of tax filing, civic tech, and benefits equity. Launching in the wake of the Trump administration’s decision to sunset IRS Direct File—one of the most popular civic tech pilots in recent memory—this new initiative brings together technologists, policy experts, and equity-driven strategists to preserve hard-won…
Andrew Leahey, for Forbes: It isn’t every day that the IRS drops something that reads like a blend of legal code, logic theory, and open government idealism. But that is exactly what it did, laying Direct File bare—and releasing it into the public domain —for the world to scrutinize, fork, or admire in stunned silence. At the heart of this code disclosure is something called the Fact Graph, a dry…
The IRS has now published the vast majority of Direct File’s code on GitHub as open-source software. As a work of the U.S. government, Direct File is in the public domain. And now everyone can check it out. Releasing Direct File’s source code demonstrates that the IRS is fulfilling its obligations under the SHARE IT Act (three weeks ahead of schedule!). Now that Direct File has paved the way, I…
I made a thing. Apologies for the walls being pretty bare, I only just moved in. I have an RSS feed if you’d like to know when I post something. No promises.