Have you ever wanted to give the Internal Revenue Service a piece of your mind? Okay, I should have asked how often have you wanted to tell off the tax collector a thing or two.
Well, now’s your chance. The IRS and Treasury are seeking public input.
The caveat, however, is that the tax agency and government department under which it serves want some specific information from the taxpaying public.
First, the Treasury (and IRS) are seeking help in efforts to fight digital asset fraud.
Second, the IRS (and Treasury) want to know our thoughts on free tax prep and e-filing options.
The IRS’ and Treasury's curiosity about what we, its taxpayer customers, think earns this weekend’s Saturday Shout Out recognition.
Help implementing GENIUS rules: The IRS has long grappled with digital assets. Since 2022, Form 1040 has included a digital asset question.
Two years later, the tax agency finalized rules requiring brokers to report gross proceeds from digital asset sales on Form 1099-DA, starting with 2025 transactions. Crypto basis reporting will be phased in for 2027.
The IRS is offering transitional relief for brokers making good faith efforts to comply and has temporarily excluded some transaction types, such as staking and lending, from reporting until further guidance is issued.
Last month, another component was introduced.
The Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for U.S. Stablecoins Act, or GENIUS Act, became law on July 18. It is the first major crypto legislation ever passed by Congress.
The GENIUS Act doesn’t change the tax treatment of stablecoins, a cryptocurrency that is backed by assets considered to be reliable, such as a national currency or a commodity. But it does, for the first time, create a new, formal framework for U.S. officials to closely follow and regulate digital asset markets.
One of its provisions also requires stablecoin issuers to comply with the Bank Secrecy Act, meaning they must implement measures protecting against money laundering and the financing of terrorism, as well as provide sufficient consumer protection.
Detecting illicit digital asset activity: The GENIUS Act also directs the Secretary of the Treasury to seek public comment on, per the Aug. 18 Federal Register announcement, “innovative or novel methods, techniques, or strategies that regulated financial institutions use, or have the potential to use, to detect illicit activity involving digital assets.”
Treasury’s request for comment (PDF version) is specifically interested in the public’s thoughts on how financial institutions and technology firms can use tools in the four specific technological areas listed below —
- Application program interfaces (APIs),
- Artificial intelligence (AI),
- Digital identity verification, and
- Use of blockchain technology and monitoring.
Treasury says that in evaluating these areas, it will consider improvements in the following areas:
- Ability of financial institutions to detect illicit activity involving digital assets;
- Costs to regulated financial institutions;
- Amount and sensitivity of information that is collected or reviewed;
- Privacy risk associated with the information that is collected or reviewed;
- Operational challenges and efficiency considerations;
- Cybersecurity risks; and
- Effectiveness of the methods, techniques, or strategies at mitigating illicit finance.
Treasury and the IRS also note that they are also interested in feedback on cryptographic protocols, privacy tools, cloud solutions, on-chain compliance, oracles, and smart contract verification.
I must admit that I will not be commenting on the GENIUS Act areas of inquiry. The technological component of crypto is way above my pay grade.
But if you have some GENIUS suggestions, go to Regulations.gov and let Treasury and the IRS know.
As the screenshot above shows, comments are open until 11:59 p.m. on Oct. 17, 2025. Also, note that your comments are public, so anyone who visits the site can see what you think. Post accordingly.
Free filing comments, too: The IRS also is seeking citizen input on another matter that affects more individual taxpayers, notably how we complete and file our annual federal tax returns.
This request for public comment also is in connection with a new law. The One Big Beautiful Bill (OBBB) Act that too effect on July 4 instructed the Treasury and IRS to compile a report on taxpayers’ existing filing options and ways they could be changed, improved, added, or eliminated.
The big tax+ bill wants to know, for example, how much it would cost to expand or create public-private partnerships that offer free tax filing for up to 70 percent of taxpayers based on their income.
If that sound like the current Free File program, a partnership between the IRS and tax software members of the Free File Alliance, congratulations. You have been paying attention.
During the 2025 filing season, Free File software was available to taxpayers with an adjusted gross income of $84,000 or less. It’s still open through Oct. 15 for taxpayers who got a filing extension.
Indicator of Direct File demise? Free File has been extended through 2029, so that program doesn’t look to be the focus of the report.
Rather, some political cynics (yes, that’s me raising my hand) believe the OBBB report requirement is aimed at discrediting Direct File, the IRS’ proprietary no-cost, online individual tax return preparation and free e-filing program.
While Direct File, which was available to select taxpayers during the 2024 and 2025 filing seasons, is not officially dead, the OBBB report findings might mean its elimination or a replacement of the program.
The OBBB says the report on taxpayer filing options should reveal what taxpayers think about using a free, government-run tax filing system (aka Direct File) versus one provided by private companies (aka industry giants Intuit TurboTax and H&R Block).
If a new system is possible, then the report should show how to make all filing options simple and consistent for users, and how to meet different taxpayer needs.
The report also must include the estimated cost of creating and managing a free IRS-run online tax filing system, including options for adjusting the system based on a person's income and the complexity of their tax return.
Reinventing the tax wheel: If you think, as I do, that all these OBBB filing option questions are redundant, congratulations again. You also have been paying attention to IRS Direct File, which has answers to the OBBB filing methodology questions.
The report requirement also raises more questions, notably why does the Republican big bill, and most of the party’s members, want to reinvent the tax filing wheel?
One answer is that the IRS has always been a favorite GOP target. Since it’s the agency that most Americans have direct contact with on an annual basis, if it does a good job, that positive interaction undercuts partisan political attacks on the agency. Such attacks often are used in arguments to push through more tax cut legislation.
Also, Direct File was established as a pilot program in 2024, under the Biden administration. We all know how the current Oval Office occupant feels about anybody who beats him.
In Direct File’s first year of operation, 141,000 taxpayers across the 12 states where it was available used it and generally reported they were happy with the option. The Economic Security Project estimated that the program saved an average of $160 in tax preparation fees for its users.
The program expanded to 25 states for the 2025 filing season. It again received good reviews from users, as well as from the state tax departments (including some Republican-led states) that coordinated with Direct File on free state tax return filings.
If you have thoughts on Direct File or any other options that would allow you to file your tax return quickly and for free, let the IRS know by taking its Free Online Tax Preparation Feedback Survey. Participation is anonymous.
And do so soon. The turnaround on the tax return filing question is quicker than the crypto comment period.
Since the IRS must submit its filing options report to Congress by Oct. 2, the IRS wants taxpayer input by Sept. 5, 2025.
You also might find these items of interest:
- Direct File: dead, alive, or still on life support?
- Free File 2025 open through Oct. 15 with 8 familiar software options
- IRS offers guidance on how to answer the tax return digital assets question
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