Washington, D.C. — Following reports that House Republicans 2025 budget reconciliation package would require the termination of the IRS’ Direct File program, the American Economic Liberties Project released the following statement.

“Corporate monopolist Intuit spent millions lobbying Republicans to insulate TurboTax from competition. Now, House Republicans are doing Intuit’s bidding by killing the Direct File program, which provided free, simplified public tax filing software beloved by its users,” said Hannah Garden Monheit, Senior Fellow at the American Economic Liberties Project. “Direct File saves the average American $160 in filing fees and hours of time each year, and continuing it would save $11 billion annually. Expanding and improving Direct File should’ve been an easy win for DOGE, but clearly corporate cronyism is more important to Republicans than lowering costs for ordinary Americans and increasing the efficiency of government services.”

The IRS’ Direct File program, launched in 2023 and expanded to 25 states in 2024, offered a simple, free way for taxpayers to file their federal returns—earning a 90% satisfaction rate from users, according to the IRS. But rather than building on this success, House Republicans are moving to dismantle it as part of their 2025 budget package—paving the way for a return to a status quo dominated by private tax prep firms like Intuit. As ProPublica has detailed, Intuit has spent decades lobbying to block public filing options while misleading consumers into paying for services that should be free, a pattern so egregious it prompted a 2022 FTC lawsuit.

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