Musk and Ramaswamy Plan Tax Filing App

President-elect Donald Trump has appointed Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy to lead the new Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), which is exploring the creation of a mobile app for free tax filing with the IRS. This initiative aims to simplify the complex U.S. tax system, which has grown from 1.5 million words in 1955 to over 16 million words today, causing Americans to spend approximately 6.5 billion hours preparing taxes each year. Preliminary discussions indicate that while the app idea is not central to DOGE's mission, it reflects a broader effort to streamline government processes and reduce expenditure. However, experts caution that significant legislative changes will be necessary to implement such reforms effectively. The proposed app could disrupt existing tax preparation companies, as evidenced by declines in stock prices for Intuit and H&R Block following news of the initiative. Despite a similar program introduced under the Biden administration, the Trump administration's approach may face challenges due to political opposition.