The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) announced Monday that it has awarded $53 million in grants to hundreds of organizations that provide taxpayer-funded federal tax preparation services for seniors, lower-income families, and underserved communities.
The IRS said in a Dec. 2 release that 315 grants have been awarded to applicants participating in the Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) program, along with 31 grants provided to organizations under the Tax Counseling for the Elderly (TCE) program. The agency noted that the grants aim to expand access to critical tax preparation services, helping more Americans navigate an increasingly complex tax code.
The complexity of America’s tax code was recently criticized by the X account of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), a to-be-established entity that President-elect Donald Trump has tasked with restructuring federal agencies—including potentially the IRS—as well as cutting government expenditures, slashing regulations, and rolling back government bureaucracy. Also, there has been media speculation that DOGE, which is led by Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, is considering developing a free app for people to file their taxes….