TPA Launches Mobile Billboard Opposing Progressive Efforts to Establish an Unnecessary and Unpopular IRS-Run Tax Preparation System
Taxpayers Protection Alliance
May 9, 2023
For Immediate Release Contact: Abigail Graham: (202) 417-7235
May 9, 2023
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, the Taxpayers Protection Alliance (TPA), a leading advocate for fiscal responsibility and limited government, announced the launch of a mobile billboard campaign opposing progressive efforts for the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to act as both tax preparer and tax filer. TPA will deploy the billboard in and around Capitol Hill on Wednesday, May 10th and around the IRS building on Thursday, May 11th. The campaign comes ahead of the anticipated release of the IRS’ biased study on the feasibility of a government-run tax preparation system that is set to come out next week on May 17th.
“Tax Day may have just passed, but taxpayers aren’t able to breathe a sigh of relief just yet. If progressive bureaucrats at the IRS have their way, the agency would soon have the power to file and process tax returns. This is a massive conflict of interest, an intrusion into the privacy of taxpayers, and a colossal waste of taxpayer money” said TPA President David Williams. “Congress, and not unelected bureaucrats, should ultimately have the final say in deciding whether to implement an unnecessary and wasteful IRS-run tax preparation system.”
Last month, House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Jason Smith (R-MO) called out the Biden administration for selecting the liberal think tank, New America, for a so-called “independent” study examining the feasibility of such a program, pointing out that New America has a clear ideological conflict. Just two years ago, “New America employees wrote favorably about Senator Warren’s Tax Simplification Act … Specifically, New America wrote ‘the government…can and should build this tool in the coming years.’”
Additionally, the Wall Street Journal revealed that the IRS buried a competing study from MITRE that found an IRS-run tax prep system to be unpopular and infeasible. According to the study from February 2023, “…A mere 37% of tax filers with simple returns would use an IRS tax preparation service. The number drops to 29% if the system doesn’t include a similar state tax-prep function. Among the nearly 50% of respondents who say they want to stick with their current commercial software, among their reasons was, ‘I don’t think it’s the IRS’s role to prepare taxes.’”
Members of Congress are already raising serious concerns regarding progressive efforts to unilaterally establish an IRS-run tax prep system. At a recent Senate Finance Committee hearing, Chairman Mike Crapo (R-ID) reminded IRS Commissioner Daniel Werfel that, “the decision is one that Congress must make and not the IRS independently.” Senator Bill Cassidy (R-LA) noted that requiring the IRS to prepare and file tax returns is a blatant conflict of interest. Instead, he urged the agency to use the billions it received in taxpayer dollars to fix its abysmal IT and data privacy record. Senator Thom Tillis (R-NC) also said that an IRS-run system is a solution in search of a problem, since 70 percent of taxpayers are already eligible for free-file services provided by the more efficient and cost-effective private sector.
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Taxpayers Protection Alliance (TPA) is a non-profit, non-partisan organization dedicated to educating the public through the research, analysis and dissemination of information on the government’s effects on the economy.
