In 2024, former President Joe Biden’s administration announced that, under his direction, the United States Treasury and the Internal Revenue Service would launch a pilot program to provide a free, public tax filing option. This would provide millions of households in the U.S. with a free, accessible and easy-to-use alternative to private filing services provided directly from the IRS.

The program, titled Direct File, was both popular and promising. In just a year, almost 300,000 tax returns were accepted through Direct File, with 94% of users rating their experience as “excellent” or “above average,” according to the IRS.

But less than two years later, President Donald Trump’s administration announced cuts to the IRS and the cancellation of the Direct File program in the wake of record spending from the tax preparation industry. Tax prep giants like Intuit and H&R Block alone spent more than $103 million in lobbying Congress and the Trump Administration. Now, likely due in part to those efforts, taxpayers in the U.S. remain deprived of a public option for tax filing. 

Today, American taxpayers spend a combined 7.1 billion hours complying with the tax code and $148 billion for tax filing services every year, a number that has only increased over the years. 

For the average U.S. taxpayer — who is already struggling with rising costs — to be subverted and extorted by a couple of entrenched tax prep corporations is unacceptable. Taxes do not have to be this hard, time-consuming or expensive. 

This issue isn’t a new one, and neither are its solutions. There were moves for a free electronic filing system as early as former President George W. Bush’s administration. Over four White House administrations, the tax prep industry’s lobbying efforts have repeatedly stifled public filing programs, killed industry competition and maintained the status quo. 

Intuit and H&R Block have consolidated their duopoly over tax filing in the U.S. while barely conceding any real benefits to the average taxpayer. In 2019, IRS data showed that 81% of all individual filings used tax preparation software, like that of Intuit’s TurboTax or H&R Block’s services. 

Although Intuit provides a free filing option following pressure from the IRS, it scarcely publicizes this service while maintaining dense and difficult-to-understand eligibility requirements, also obfuscating the location of the site online. Reporting from ProPublica has revealed that Intuit has gone so far as to actively mislead customers into paying for its services, with Turbo Tax’s “Free Edition” not being truly free, featuring tacked-on fees and extra charges to service state taxes. 

Intuit and H&R Block’s lobbying efforts have not only prevented the IRS from instituting a public option, but have also led to public investment into the private tax prep sector: Intuit alone collected almost $500 million in federal research and development credits over the past five years. The Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy reported that public costs to operate the IRS’ free filing program roughly amounted to the same amount of revenue that Intuit collects year over year.

The technology for a national free tax filing system has existed for decades now, and the policy framework has been laid out in most other developed nations: Countries like Japan, the United Kingdom, Denmark and Sweden all offer electronic prefiling systems which require little more than review and approval from the taxpayer. 

But instead, the U.S.’ over 150 million taxpayers are stuck with no other option than to rely on an industry dominated by two companies. Intuit and H&R Block have made it clear over decades of lobbying that they will fight against any measures that might hurt their market share and profitability, even at the cost of U.S. taxpayers’ time and money. 

Young, first-time taxpayers in particular will have to either contend with a complex tax filing system or cough up funds for a service to do it for them. 

The Trump administration’s decision to kill the IRS’ Direct File program furthers an overarching theme that has characterized tax policy over the past few years. Howard Gleckman of the Tax Policy Center put it like this: “The traditional goals of good tax policy have historically been equity, efficiency, and simplicity … recent tax bills have accomplished none.” 

With the midterms less than a week away, a lot of issues are on Americans’ minds, namely: affordability, immigration, artificial intelligence and healthcare. But it is important to give some thought about U.S. tax policy. What is happening with tax policy affects other hot-topic issues in real ways, and corporate interest’s role in our government is one that extends far beyond just tax policy. 

Corporate interests won’t concede anything unless something is done. Take this election season to get in the know, and to get in the vote.