This week, AIA highlights a former IRS employee who, uncoerced, admitted via blog post that the IRS Direct File team began developing the platform well before receiving the authorization to do so.

Before the formal rollout of the Direct File pilot, the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) of 2022 specifically mandated that the IRS produce a report on a program prototype. The study would point to the program's efficacy and feasibility. Even before this, in 2021, there was an internal effort to push a proof of concept of the program that would “make it hurt” when decision makers declined to eventually give Direct File the greenlight “to have the best shot at success in filing season 2024,” before President Biden departed from office.

The former IRS employee avowed:

• “The optics of one part of government studying the question of Direct File while another part moved full steam ahead weren’t great.”

AIA views the Direct File team’s calculated actions before receiving authorization to move forward as one of the many ways in which the IRS has become biased along partisan lines. Instances like this are exactly why AIA remains committed to ridding the IRS of bias. The agency should never be swayed by political motives or what they perceive to be in the best interests of Americans.

Read the full blog post here.

If you, or someone you know, has experienced a specific IRS abuse and wish to flag the instance for potential inclusion in future Abuses of the Week, contact us with the details at the following email: info@irsaccountability.org.