The article touts the ~300k users of direct file as a big number, and the “just 3% of eligible tax payers” used free file as a small number.

Wouldn’t the 3% number come out yo millions of people?

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sgerenser a day ago | parent | next [-]

Direct File did have a lot of limitations, so I assume when they say “eligible taxpayers” that’s the total number of people that could have used Direct File, which is much less than 100% of taxpayers. Even then, I’d assume more than 10 million people in the U.S. have very simple tax returns.

	▲	kylecazar a day ago \| parent [-]
		Yes, and also, there's a difference between Free File and Direct File, and the article kind of switches between referring to the two. Free file: government partners with private companies to offer free tax returns through their software for low income people. It's suspected a lot of people don't know about it, and just use the paid versions of filing software because you have to start the process on IRS.gov and dark patterns were employed by the snakes at Intuit et al. Hence "just 3%". Been around for decades. Direct file: New program (since 2024) for eligible people to file directly for free with the IRS, no third party tax software middleman. Only half the states are eligible, income criteria, simple taxes only. 300,000 touted as a bigger number because it's a very new program.

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a day ago | parent | prev [-]

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