Oregon made its own turbo tax competitor and it's great, and getting better every year. I was really looking forward to Direct File. (I used an accountant this year so I didn't get my chance.) Back to filing my own returns by hand next year.

Thank you, DOGE brainiacs who decided I had to keep doing it the inefficient way.

Use Free Tax USA. Federal is free. If you need to file state, it is $15. I’ve used it for years and it works great. For a number of years I prepared my taxes on both Turbo Tax (without actually paying for it) and Free Tax USA. They always came up with the same numbers.

Mr. Bessent (Treasury Secretary) was repeatedly asked during his confirmation hearing whether he would protect DirectFile and he said "Yes" :-)

A small snippet of that conversation. The video recording has much more details -

Do you agree with the Government Accountability Office’s (GAO) report finding that the Direct File pilot was successful and should be expanded?

Answer: As noted during the hearing, I commit that for this tax season, Direct File will be operative to prevent any disruptions for taxpayers. And if confirmed, I will consult and study the program and understand it better, and evaluate whether it works to serve the best interests of taxpayers.

From page 36 at https://www.finance.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/responses_to_qu...

So he evaluated not to expand :-(

FreeTaxUSA only cost me like… $20? in California this year and had very little upsells. Highly recommend!

Regardless of what happens to Direct File, I recommend people learn how to do their tax returns by hand. I do it by hand every year. Yes, it is tedious, but I am not beholden to anyone and I don't need a "product" (paid or otherwise) to solve it for me. It takes me between 10 to 15 hours per year for both my federal and state tax returns. That is all. Once you get a hang of it, it is not that bad.

(I recognize that not everyone can do this, but if you have the technical skill to handle the math, I do still recommend it.)