nice parts of the article

Posted on: April 17, 2025 at 07:25:48 CT

The IRS will lose about a third of its staff this year through layoffs and employees accepting resignation offers, The New York Times reported yesterday.

and for more context

Direct File is further limited by the amount of income. You can't use Direct File if your wages were over $200,000, or $160,200 if you had more than one employer. Direct File also isn't available to those who use the filing status "Married Filing Separately" and had wages of more than $125,000. For a married couple filing a joint return, there is a combined wage limit of $250,000.

There's another limit related to how you obtain health insurance. Direct File won't work if you bought health insurance from a HealthCare.gov marketplace or if you withdrew money from a health savings account. Other types of health insurance are supported.

Direct File supports the Child Tax Credit, the Earned Income Tax Credit, and the Credit for Other Dependents but does not support other types of credits. Itemized deductions also are not supported, though the IRS says that about 90 percent of people filing federal taxes use the standard deduction.

my guess is a better plan is in the works, but we'll see