Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen told lawmakers that her department is thinking about making the free tax filing program better. Right now, it’s a small program, but they want to make it bigger and add more features, like being able to use it in different languages and filling in some information automatically.
But, some people don’t like this idea. Republicans and some companies that make tax software don’t want the government to offer this service for free because they used to have a deal with the IRS that said they would be the only ones to help with tax returns.
Yellen said they are still figuring out if it’s worth it to keep running this program. Some Democrats think it’s a good idea because it helps people file taxes for free and easily.
The program had more users than expected this year, with over 140,000 people using it. Most users liked it, saying it was easy to use.
But, companies like Turbo Tax say the government is not telling the whole truth about how much it’s costing to run this program.
The government is also planning big changes to the IRS, spending a lot of money to make it better, especially for catching rich people and big companies who aren’t paying their fair share of taxes.
President Biden wants to raise taxes for wealthy people but promises not to raise taxes for those who make less than $400,000 a year.
