Government Determining the Taxes We Owe Is a Massive Conflict of Interest

April brings not only showers, Patriots’ Day and baseball, but also the dreaded tax man. If you’re one of those rushing to beat the deadline, don’t worry: Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren is here to help.

The latest scheme from the former Harvard Professor is a taxpayer-funded program run by the federal government that determines just how much taxpayers owe the federal government. No conflict of interest there – the same bureaucrats who rely on tax dollars to pay their own salaries are the ones minding the till.

Dubbed “Direct File,” the boondoggle is a byproduct of the Biden Administration’s so-called “Inflation Reduction Act” – legislation that the latest economic report indicates clearly failed to live up to its billing and tame inflation. In addition to $80 billion dollars to hire more Internal Revenue Service (IRS) agents to snoop around and create more audits, the IRA (at Warren’s behest) carved $15 million dollars for a protype program.

The problems with Direct File are many.

First, it has only been around for a few months, but already the program is under fire from the Government Accountability Office (GAO), the independent, non-partisan watchdog of the U.S. Congress. A damaging report took Direct File to task for claiming benefits that may not exist – including saving taxpayers time.

Second, the projected costs are already spiraling out of control – north of $100 million dollars, according to the GAO. A government program over budget – who could have guessed?

Third, according to the Wall Street Journal, the program is hardly being used. In early April, the IRS had accepted fewer than 60,000 returns prepared by Direct File – or less than one percent of the eligible pool of filers. Assume the number reaches 100,000 by tax day – that’s $1,000 per filer, compared to the average cost of $250 to hire a your own tax professional with your own best interests at heart.

Finally, the entire program is unnecessary because 7 in 10 taxpayers can already file their taxes through a public private partnership called “free file” eligible to anyone earning under $79,000. This isn’t good enough for Senator Warren, who wants the government to take over the process for everyone.

It’s a constant theme for the modern American left: more control over every facet of life, from mandates on cars to dishwashers to stoves. The government always knows best.

To be sure, the American tax code is far too complex. It should not require an Ivy League education to complete its forms correctly. But lawmakers would be better served streamlining and simplifying the system rather than demonizing private industry for attempting to simplify an otherwise painful process.

But that’s never been Senator Warren’s style. She is who she said she would be – a partisan ideologue more interested in making a point than making a difference. She blames everything on “corporate greed” or the “ultra-rich and powerful,” ignoring her own status as a multi-millionaire or the fact that that “one percent” so frequently the target of Warren’s scorn paid nearly half (45.8%) of the nation’s total income taxes in 2021.

As President Ronald Reagan once put it, “the nine most terrifying words in the English language are, ‘I’m from the government and I’m here to help.’” If Senator Warren has her way, next year the feds won’t just tell how and when to pay – they’ll tell you just how much you owe, too.