New Trump design chief aims to improve thousands of US government websites

[muriel_volestrangler]

5. "tackling problems at the Internal Revenue Service would be a focus" - problems induced by Republicans

Musk's DOGE fires federal tech team that built free tax-filing site

WASHINGTON, March 1 (Reuters) - The Trump administration has pulled the plug on a team of tech-savvy civil servants that helped to build the Internal Revenue Service’s free tax-filing service and revamp websites across government, a spokesperson for the General Service Administration said on Saturday.

GSA’s Director of Technology Transformation Services Thomas Shedd notified employees of a digital service team known as 18F that their jobs had been terminated as they had been identified as “non-critical."
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Billionaire Elon Musk, who leads the Trump administration's Department of Government Efficiency team, earlier this month responded to a post on X that called 18F a "far-left government-wide computer office" by saying the group has been "deleted."

https://www.reuters.com/world/us/musks-doge-fires-federal-tech-team-that-built-free-tax-filing-site-2025-03-01/

A provision tucked inside Republicans’ reconciliation text would officially end IRS Direct File — a Biden-era free tax filing website the Trump administration is reportedly planning to shutter already — and establish a task force to replace it and Free File, the public-private program the IRS has long used to offer most taxpayers a free way to file online.

The House Ways and Means Committee is marking up the text Tuesday as part of Republicans’ effort to pass immigration, tax and benefit policy priorities through one “big beautiful bill.”

The proposal is the latest attempt from Republicans to kill Direct File, which the Trump administration already plans to eliminate, the Associated Press reported in April. The Biden administration launched Direct File in 2024, where it got high marks from users in that inaugural tax season, and the IRS expanded it from 12 to 25 states this year.

https://www.nextgov.com/digital-government/2025/05/republicans-want-treasury-study-free-tax-filing-options-again/405289/

Internal Revenue Service Commissioner Bill Long said the agency will end its Direct File program after a limited pilot and one full filing season.

President Donald Trump’s massive spending and policy bill includes funding to research and “replace any direct e-file programs run by the Internal Revenue Service.” Already, the program is “gone,” Long said at a tax professional summit on July 28, Bloomberg Law reports.

“You’ve heard of Direct File, that’s gone,” Long said. “Big beautiful Billy wiped that out. I don’t care about Direct File. I care about direct audit.”

https://www.cnbc.com/2025/07/30/irs-chief-says-agency-plans-to-end-free-direct-file-program.html