Congress Is About to Ban the Government from Offering Free Online Tax Filing

In one of its provisions, the bill makes it illegal for the IRS to create its own online system of tax filing. Under an existing memorandum of understanding with the industry group, the IRS pledges not create its own online filing system and, in exchange, the companies offer their free filing services to those below the income threshold. One member of the Free File Alliance explicitly told shareholders that the IRS “developing software or other systems to facilitate tax return preparation … may present a continued competitive threat to our business for the foreseeable future.”

Source: www.propublica.org