Taxpayers may have a rough time as the new administration and a Congress controlled by Republicans try to get rid of many of the IRS’s new rules.
On January 27, 2025, tax season will begin, even though the IRS and the money that supports many of its new programs are facing more uncertainty.
The IRS announced on Friday that this tax season, people will be able to access dozens of tax forms digitally on their phones. The government said that taxpayers can now get help from virtual assistants who can help them with their tax refunds.
People in 25 states can now use the IRS’s new free tax filing service, which is also known as Direct File. With the new software, taxpayers will be able to directly import their data into their IRS accounts. This includes some information from W-2s.
Even so, Direct File and many of the IRS’s other new programs could be killed now that the Republicans control Congress and the White House. And it’s not at all clear that many of the IRS’s new programs will still be around when the tax season ends in April.
Republicans have promised to take back a lot of the long-term funding for the IRS that came from the Democrats’ Inflation Reduction Act and was used to update the agency’s databases and processing centers.
In December, a group of House Republicans wrote to President-elect Donald Trump and asked him to end the Direct File program right away through an executive order on “day one.” The GOP lawmakers said that the agency couldn’t be trusted to file people’s taxes and follow tax laws at the same time.
Additionally, it is not clear if the IRS will have a leadership change during the busiest time of the year for the organization.
Why is that? Because Trump chose Billy Long, a former congressman from Missouri, to be the new commissioner of the IRS. This meant that the current commissioner, Danny Werfel, would be fired.
Legislators and tax filers are surprised by Long’s experience selling a tax credit from the time of the pandemic. Over the past few years, there have been a lot of fraudulent claims for this credit.
Many Republican senators have made fun of the fact that Senate Finance Chair Mike Crapo (R-Idaho) has said he wants to nominate Long. So, even Republicans could ask tough questions about Long at his nomination hearing.
