Author: Eric Revell, FOXBusiness; Translated by: Deng Tong, Golden Finance
Reportedly, President-elect Trump has tasked the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), led by Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, with considering the development of a mobile application to make it easier for taxpayers to file their tax returns for free.
(The Washington Post) reported on Tuesday, citing two sources familiar with conversations among DOGE leaders, that the topic of discussion was to develop an application that would allow taxpayers to file taxes more seamlessly; however, the sources stated that these discussions are still in a highly preliminary stage.
(The Washington Post) reports that there are several challenges in developing a tax filing application, such as potential difficulties in accessing relevant expense documents, as well as the vast scale and complexity of the tax code.
DOGE is considering how to make it easier for Americans to pay taxes annually, which is expected to be part of a broader federal initiative seeking potential cost savings and improving efficiency by streamlining programs and eliminating layoffs.
Both Musk and Ramaswamy have called for simplified tax laws. In response to a post citing the costs incurred by Americans each year in the tax process, Musk wrote in a post on X on Tuesday, "Crazy idea: let's simplify the tax code."
The official DOGE account on Elon Musk's social media platform X expressed similar views in a post on Saturday.
"In 1955, U.S. tax law contained less than 1.5 million words. Today, it exceeds 16 million words. Due to this complexity, Americans spend a total of 6.5 billion hours preparing and filing taxes each year. This must be simplified," DOGE wrote.
Americans can currently file their taxes for free online through the IRS Free File program, although it is a web-based program rather than a mobile application.
The free filing program provides guidance tax software programs for taxpayers with an annual income of $79,000 or less, as well as fillable forms similar to paper Form 1040, offering free options for taxpayers with income above that threshold.
As reports suggest that DOGE may launch a mobile application for tax filing, shares of well-known companies providing accounting and tax services fell on Tuesday.
H&R Block's stock fell by 8.2%. Shares of TurboTax's parent company Intuit fell by 5.1%.