this post was submitted on 04 Jun 2025
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[–] bitofarambler@crazypeople.online 451 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (37 children)

really good article with a couple surprises in there.

"some people speculated that, because of the political pressure against it, its release must have been an act of resistance by someone within the IRS. But the open sourcing of the program was always part of the plan, and was required by a law called the SHARE IT Act. It happened “fully above board, which is honestly more of a feat!,” Given told 404 Media. “This has been in the works since last year.”

Vinton told 404 Media in a phone call that the open sourcing of Direct File “is just good government.”

“All code paid for by taxpayer dollars should be open source, available for comment, for feedback, for people to build on and for people in other agencies to replicate. It saves everyone money and it is our [taxpayers’] IP,” she said. “This is just good government and should absolutely be the standard that government technologists are held to.”"

[–] outhouseperilous@lemmy.dbzer0.com 111 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (9 children)

Dunno, sounds like some fucking commie shit to be. And not the kind i can someyimes get on board with when it comes time to do secret police shebanigans, but the bad scary kind where they dont even have a use for police.

Wouldn't it be better to just give the code for free to a good corporate citizen who can be entrusted with its stewardship?

Edit: yes of course we rent it back!

[–] bitofarambler@crazypeople.online 79 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (5 children)

only if the corporate citizen promises really hard we can trust them. like a super promise.

[–] outhouseperilous@lemmy.dbzer0.com 17 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Also we have to pay them whenever we want to use the code. Yes.

[–] bitofarambler@crazypeople.online 16 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

you bought it, why shouldn't you also rent it?

[–] outhouseperilous@lemmy.dbzer0.com 11 points 2 weeks ago (3 children)

Exactly! Twice the value for my tax dollar!

Not that I've ever paid taxes, but, you know, if my accounting department all suddenly died in mid march some year, and i wasnt operated out of a PO box in a tax shelter, i bet i mightve had to.

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[–] czl@lemmy.dbzer0.com 44 points 2 weeks ago (4 children)

Bro why are people downvoting this when it is so clearly a joke

[–] fiddledeedee@sopuli.xyz 41 points 2 weeks ago

because its the internet in 2025 and we simply cannot tell anymore

I can think of two reasons and both of them are hilarious.

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[–] Gladaed@feddit.org 7 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

/s dude, this is the Internet and you are not a person with a widely known stance.

[–] outhouseperilous@lemmy.dbzer0.com 10 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

The candle that burns half as bright burns twice as long, and you, my child, will burn so very long.

[–] Gladaed@feddit.org 11 points 2 weeks ago (4 children)

Sick "burn", but still a bit uncalled for, don't you think?

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[–] eager_eagle@lemmy.world 140 points 2 weeks ago (6 children)
[–] dhork@lemmy.world 69 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (2 children)

Hurry up and clone that ASAP, this is gonna get taken down once DOGE realizes what it is

[–] ricecake@sh.itjust.works 51 points 2 weeks ago (5 children)

More likely they'll just turn off or unpublish the API that it depends on.

[–] catloaf@lemm.ee 10 points 2 weeks ago

Is that even available right now? Usually for this type of thing you need API keys, which are not included, nor available at all.

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[–] UltraMagnus0001@lemmy.world 105 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

TurboTax owned buy intuit, part of H&R block who has partnered with credit karma. Everything is a monopoly now

[–] smashing3606@feddit.online 39 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

I'm pretty sure intuit and h&r block are competitors, not the same compamy.

[–] TachyonTele@lemm.ee 66 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

You are correct.

Here's an annoying thing i just learned about H&R Block:

As of 2022, H&R Block's tax preparation service shares user data with Facebook, which can be used for targeted advertising. This can include sensitive financial information from health savings accounts and college expenses, and this tax data is shared without consent even for users who opt out of the service.

[–] solarvector@lemmy.dbzer0.com 10 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (1 children)

Do you have a source we can reference for that particular bit of shitbaggery?

Edit: congressional report on the shit bags in question:

https://www.classaction.org/media/hartz-v-taxact-inc-congressional-report.pdf

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[–] rageagainstmachines@lemmy.world 7 points 2 weeks ago

This pisses me off so much.

[–] CluckN@lemmy.world 13 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Yeah I saw Monopoly Fortnite I wonder what is next?

[–] raltoid@lemmy.world 7 points 2 weeks ago

I know, what are they making next? Lord of the Rings edition? Star Wars? Oh the humanities.

[–] Olgratin_Magmatoe@startrek.website 52 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

It's already got 4 PRs

lol

[–] jayandp@sh.itjust.works 10 points 2 weeks ago (3 children)
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[–] Smoogs@lemmy.world 40 points 2 weeks ago

What happened to the title of this?? Jeez

[–] fluxion@lemmy.world 37 points 2 weeks ago

Suck a bag of dicks, TurboTax

[–] HawlSera@lemm.ee 29 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

I got told I couldn't get a tax return because they flagged me for potential fraud, so I have to go to ID.me to verify.. but then my account got banned while trying to verify my information.

Fml

Guess that means they don't want your money! Woo! (this is not legal advice, pay your taxes)

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[–] fiddledeedee@sopuli.xyz 20 points 2 weeks ago

HA get fucked turbotax

[–] eugenevdebs@lemmy.dbzer0.com 20 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Oh that's awesome. I hope it can still be accepted by the IRS for the future (if we still have one in ~3 years) but it would be neat to just be able to have an open standard for online filing.

[–] Bluewing@discuss.online 8 points 2 weeks ago

Don't worry, there will always be an IRS for us plebes.

[–] LorIps@lemmy.world 19 points 2 weeks ago (7 children)

It's licensed under CC0 to anyone wondering. BSD 0-Clause would probably be better but still fantastic.

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[–] demizerone@lemmy.world 18 points 2 weeks ago

The more money you pay someone to find the loop holes in the tax code the less likely you are to support out government and its war machine.

[–] Vinstaal0@feddit.nl 15 points 2 weeks ago (9 children)

Was the US so behind that they didn't have a way to file taxes online for free?

[–] Sine_Fine_Belli@lemmy.world 6 points 2 weeks ago

Unfortunately yes

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[–] JackbyDev@programming.dev 12 points 2 weeks ago
[–] SabinStargem@lemmy.today 11 points 2 weeks ago

THIS is the way.

[–] smikwily@sh.itjust.works 8 points 2 weeks ago

Archive of the full article: https://archive.ph/6qJ6v

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