Chris Given

Direct File went live on January 29, 2024.

I recently accepted the position of Deputy Secretary for Technology and Innovation of the California Government Operations Agency.

With the federal government abandoning Direct File for now, many state leaders are, admirably, looking for ways to keep the party going.

I’ve been deliberately steering clear of using this space to react to current events.

Government writing is usually stripped of all personality, so I like it when civil servants let loose in times of stress.

Judge Carlton Reeves of the Southern District of Mississippi has written some real bangers in his career, but his magnum opus might be his 2018 opinion in Boatner v.

Direct File was an obvious idea.

So last week’s post was not so subtly a provocation for the “just add AI” approach to government.

James R.

And now for something completely different.

Alex Mark: The tax code contains some pretty crazy edge cases that required a good amount of effort to build and test.

Dan Sinker: In the Who Cares Era, the most radical thing you can do is care.

Nina Olson and Gabriel Zucker: …the team continued to evaluate Direct File, as it had all along, preparing a comprehensive year-two report on its work.

When the Treasury Department ordered the Direct File team to stop work and disband, the toughest part was saying goodbye.

Andrew Leahey, for Forbes: It isn’t every day that the IRS drops something that reads like a blend of legal code, logic theory, and open government idealism.

Economic Security Project (ESP) announces a new fellowship focused on the future of tax filing, civic tech, and benefits equity.

Speaking of Merici, I’ve been meaning to reupload this video from a July 2024 event, where she and I spoke about lessons learned from the Direct File pilot.

The IRS has now published the vast majority of Direct File’s code on GitHub as open-source software.

I made a thing.