never understood exactly what is the code they released. is it just the from filler that only works for people with a single w2 and no stocks etc?
never understood exactly what is the code they released. is it just the from filler that only works for people with a single w2 and no stocks etc?
IRS Direct File on GitHub - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44182356 - June 2025
https://chrisgiven.com/2025/06/saying-goodbye/
https://chrisgiven.com/2025/05/direct-file-on-github/
https://github.com/IRS-Public/direct-file
(In the latest version of the bill being negotiated in Congress, the language to sunset Direct File has been removed, but this of course could change due to the fluidity of the situation; regardless, we are all better off having learned from this and having access to the source code)
the code they released was everything that is necessary to run Direct File in development, but they removed code relating to MeF (the IRS's online submission API) and SADI (the IRS's auth system which is integrated with ID.me). most of the code is the backend, Fact Graph (which is a very complex rules engine), the client app (both the form and the screener when you go to directfile.irs.gov), and the state tax API
so it is the mostly useless system that only works for a single w2 :(
99.999% of people here would never be able to use it anyway.
it works with multiple W-2s I'm pretty sure. the goal is to make it work for everyone which is pretty difficult but I'm motivated to at least work on getting it to work with IRAs because I have one and I want to use this for next year
is this official but incomplete code better than the always open source but mostly complete open tax solver project?
I wouldn't know but at least this code has a good foundation to add onto