from Hacker News

IRS Direct File on GitHub

by nickthegreek on 6/4/25, 4:16 PM with 318 comments

https://github.com/IRS-Public/direct-file

by tomhow on 6/5/25, 2:13 AM
See also:
Saying Goodbye - https://chrisgiven.com/2025/06/saying-goodbye/
by hydrogen7800 on 6/4/25, 5:30 PM
I figure that the source code is not the hard part of the IRS making this available to the public, but the interoperability with the revenue system, and its verified adherence to the current tax code. Couldn't those things still be killed by the administration even if the source code is available publicly?
by 90s_dev on 6/4/25, 7:05 PM
Is this common in Java?
https://github.com/IRS-Public/direct-file/blob/9dd76a786ea69...
by pimlottc on 6/4/25, 6:54 PM
Aside from the code, there's also a ton of great design documents and notes under /docs/design [0], including detailed process diagrams for many of the user flows (unfortunately not directly viewable online since they're within zip files; see flow1.zip and flow2.zip)
0: https://github.com/IRS-Public/direct-file/tree/main/docs/des...
by jmisavage on 6/4/25, 5:30 PM
Found the repo over here if anyone is curious.
https://github.com/IRS-Public/direct-file
by timerol on 6/4/25, 6:30 PM
Who among us has not accidentally made a new repo as just a submodule pointer instead of actually committing the files? https://github.com/IRS-Public/direct-file/commit/2f3ebd66932...
It's also fun that, because this is from the US, they can't just use CC0, but instead need to clarify that this must be public domain, separately from the worldwide CC0.
by ronbenton on 6/5/25, 2:13 AM
Favorite quote(s)
>But as I told the team as the end closed in, “We took a pipedream, and made it a policy choice.” No one can claim with a straight face that Direct File is impossible anymore; bringing it back requires only that our elected leaders make a different choice.
>What I mourn the most, though, is the dissolution of the team, the disregard for the vast impact they were poised and eager to deliver. The team itself is what I am proudest of from my time working on Direct File. Their manic dedication to the mission. The care they consistently took to get it right. The trust and love they had for each other.
by timhigins on 6/4/25, 9:53 PM
> Exempted Code
> Not all source code, documentation and metadata used in the development of Direct File is included in this repository. Specifically, any code or data that is considered Personally Identifiable Information (PII), Federal Tax Information (FTI), Sensitive But Unclassified (SBU), or source code developed for National Security Systems (NSS), as defined in 40 U.S.C. § 11103, is exempt. Due to these restrictions, certain pieces of functionality have been removed or rewritten.
Very curious about what these pieces are that were removed
by ronbenton on 6/4/25, 6:24 PM
Sadly this program is being killed by the current admin. This repo looks great. The scala fact graph is super neat and there is clearly a lot of care that went into making the tutorial for it.
by Zambyte on 6/5/25, 9:25 AM
Why was the IRS-Public[0] group created for this, instead of using the existing irsgov[1] group?
[0] https://github.com/IRS-Public
[1] https://github.com/irsgov
by divbzero on 6/4/25, 5:54 PM
Related discussion from last week:
IRS Direct File - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44131901 - May 2025 (62 comments)

by adamdecaf on 6/4/25, 6:40 PM

There's quite the mix of languages involved!

    -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Language                     files          blank        comment           code
    -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    YAML                           452            158            693         161655
    JSON                           396              1              0         155975
    JavaScript                       7             21           4513         123150
    TypeScript                     741           7913          19645          80869
    XML                             66           5208           1006          60935
    Java                           725           7380           2283          37863
    Scala                          272           3275           1423          25395
    CSV                            146              0              0          25335
    Markdown                        86           5019             21           9228
    SVG                             12              5           1749           9130
    HTML                            39             52              4           4073
    Maven                           16             61             87           1963
    SCSS                            47            380             85           1662
    Scheme                           5            121              0            864
    Python                          13            185             96            668
    Bourne Shell                    17             94            127            541
    DOS Batch                        2             30              0            268
    CSS                              1             17              0             81
    Properties                       9              0             24             60
    Text                             3              1              0             35
    TOML                             1              6              0             26
    Dockerfile                       1              8              1             19
    INI                              1              0              0              7
    SQL                              4              0              0              5
    -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    SUM:                          3062          29935          31757         699807
    -------------------------------------------------------------------------------

by UncleOxidant on 6/5/25, 12:19 AM
> Please note: As of two weeks ago, I no longer work at the IRS. I am writing solely in my personal capacity.
It's too bad the current Administration is going to kill DirectFile and has fired all the people who were working on it.
by paxys on 6/4/25, 5:57 PM
TurboTax isn't "trying to kill" it they have successfully killed it. Intuit donated $1M to Trump's inaugration fund, and the Trump administation subsequently ended support for Direct File (which I'm assuming is why it was open sourced). The IRS will no longer accept returns directly. 18F itself was disbanded by doge, so even though the code is open source no one is going to continue to develop it.
by ctkhn on 6/4/25, 5:50 PM
Love that the repo has two commits and they're both "initial commit"
by 1-more on 6/9/25, 4:15 PM
IRS knows what a bifunctor is. What an amazing day https://github.com/IRS-Public/direct-file/blob/9dd76a786ea69...
by cookingmyserver on 6/4/25, 8:49 PM
I enjoyed walking through some of their docs which documented decisions and deliverables. Thought for sure it would have just been a dump of source code with little to no context.
by bigon on 6/5/25, 9:40 AM
Wait, the USA/IRS is not providing a free platform for individuals to fill their tax?
by BrandoElFollito on 6/4/25, 8:41 PM
What is the core reason for the government in the US to not provide a simple online tax filing portal like we generally have in Europe.
It is pre-filled with the known incomes so for the best majority of people filling their taxes is a 1 minute exercise.
This also helps, I guess, to have the taxes flow in.
by johnwatson11218 on 6/6/25, 1:52 PM
Everyone is talking about having LLMs write software but what about having them delete code? That can be very hard in a legacy enterprise environment. I think dead code detection overlaps with security and that is a good way to sell that kind of code clean up. Having LLMs review your architecture is a fun exercise, being able to incorporate that feedback is a good measure for the dev teams.
by thuanao on 6/4/25, 9:30 PM
In my experience the paper forms are so much easier and more reliable than using tax software. A pen and a form just works. No account logins and passwords, no janky UI, no advertisements, no issues saving your progress... The instructions are much better too. Each box is numbered and there's an instruction manual detailing what to put in that box. If you make mistakes the IRS will simply correct you.
by cebert on 6/5/25, 2:47 AM
This code base is clean and well-crafted. I appreciate the extensive documentation. It’s unfortunate that Direct File was affected by budget cuts.
by zb3 on 6/4/25, 5:30 PM
https://github.com/IRS-Public/direct-file
by elif on 6/5/25, 4:17 PM
Seems like an anti-pattern to involve so many unique human perspectives on who owes what. An authority should establish what taxes are owed objectively, and the system should just send out invoices.
If you have a problem with that, build a robust appeal process. Essentially what we have now is an appeal process for every single person.
by czhu12 on 6/4/25, 10:12 PM
Given this project is being drained of resources by the new admin, is anyone in the know able to comment on how hard this would be to take, and stand up, as a competitor to turbo tax?
Presumably, any Intuit competitors will be given a 10 year headstart worth many millions, maybe billions?
by yonran on 6/4/25, 8:16 PM
What would it take for an individual or small business to run a version of this locally? To file, you need an MeF account with IRS; does the IRS grant those freely? And to import W2s and 1099s, it seems that there is a DataImportService interface but unfortunately there is no implementation and the APIs to IRS are not public.
If the Biden administration wanted to break the tax software oligopoly, they should have focused on making the government’s own interfaces open.
by insane_dreamer on 6/5/25, 4:55 AM
I wonder whether Cash App's free filing service (used it for the first time last year and it was very good even for my somewhat complicated taxes) is based on this?
by vjvjvjvjghv on 6/5/25, 1:36 AM
Weren't they also working on a system that would send you a prefilled return with all information filled in the IRS already has?
by colelyman on 6/4/25, 9:28 PM
I went to the link thinking that I could now file my taxes with the IRS through GitHub, which I honestly have mixed feelings about.
by skrebbel on 6/4/25, 5:37 PM
Wow public domain license! Smart move, I assume those disgruntled devs who "joined a project to explore the “future of tax filing” in the private sector" can now easily fork it and compete with TurboTax directly (with, I hope, a much better product at a lower price). Normally that'd feel a bit scummy but in this case I can't fault them for it.
Here's to hoping they can outcompete TurboTax so brutally that Intuit won't be able to pay for all those lobbyists anymore.
by piker on 6/4/25, 7:59 PM
> libs
Guys I knew it
by eamann on 6/4/25, 6:14 PM
It's a bit disappointing that a seemingly official project isn't using commit signing for verification and non-repudiation. It's open source, great! But it's also pretty massive (i.e. hard to review everything) and the chance of a bad actor sticking code in something so critical as tax filings.
by monksy on 6/8/25, 6:05 AM
The fact graph service uses scala!
by jsmo on 6/5/25, 8:40 PM
Thanks for sharing!
by ivanjermakov on 6/4/25, 8:36 PM
> The source code is only public because of federal law
I doubt contributions are welcome
by vagab0nd on 6/4/25, 9:01 PM
Ok we now have "law is code".
When can we have "code is law"? Write the code as source of truth and generate the law from it.
by internet_points on 6/4/25, 6:50 PM
> Direct File also incorporates the Fact Graph, a declarative, XML-based knowledge graph data structure that is designed to reason about incomplete information, such as a partially completed tax return. The Fact Graph is written in the Scala programming language; it runs on the JVM on the backend and is transpiled via Scala.js to run on the client as well. Direct File's Fact Graph is not domain-specific, and it may be useful to revenue agencies and as a reference for business rules engine implementations.
by pimlottc on 6/4/25, 5:44 PM
Here's the announcement from one of the principal engineers:
https://chrisgiven.com/2025/05/direct-file-on-github/
by piracyrules on 6/5/25, 5:17 AM
Let's not forget how IRS only goes after the small fishes in the pond. Billionaires get a free pass from them all the time.