The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) that President-elect Trump has tasked Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy with leading is reportedly considering developing a mobile app to make it easier for taxpayers to file their returns for free.
The Washington Post on Tuesday reported citing two people familiar with conversations by DOGE leaders on the subject that it may develop an app that taxpayers can use to file their taxes more seamlessly, though the sources described the conversations as highly preliminary.
The Post’s report noted that there are some challenges associated with developing a tax-filing app, such as potentially not having access to relevant documentation of expenses, as well as the sheer scale and complexity of the tax code.
DOGE’s consideration of ways to make it easier for Americans to pay their taxes each year comes as part of what’s expected to be a broader push to scour federal programs for potential cost savings as well as promote efficiency by streamlining programs and removing redundancies.
Both Musk and Ramaswamy have called for the tax code to be simplified. In a response to a post citing the costs Americans incur in the process of paying their taxes each year, Musk wrote in a X post on Tuesday, “Crazy idea: let’s simplify the tax code.”
DOGE’s official account on X, the social media platform Musk owns, expressed a similar sentiment in a post on Saturday.
“In 1955, there were less than 1.5 million words in the U.S. Tax Code. Today, there are more than 16 million words. Because of this complexity, Americans collectively spend 6.5 billion hours preparing and filing their taxes each year. This must be simplified,” DOGE wrote.
FOX Business reached out to DOGE for comment.
Americans are currently able to file taxes online for free through the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Free File program, though it’s a web-based program rather than a mobile app.
The Free File program has a guided tax software program for taxpayers with an annual gross income of $79,000 or less, as well as fillable forms similar to a paper 1040 form that provides a free option for taxpayers with income over that threshold.
Shares of prominent companies that provide accounting and tax services to consumers fell on Tuesday amid reports about DOGE potentially pursuing a mobile app for tax filing.
H&R Block’s stock slid by 8.2%. Intuit, the parent company of TurboTax, saw shares fall by 5.1%.