Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency are taking a wrecking ball to public institutions — axing online information centers, blowing up agencies, and raiding the Treasury for private data. And although there’s no telling where DOGE will strike next, some taxpayers may be about to saddle the loss of a popular service.

• Musk said Monday that he “deleted” the government agency responsible for the IRS’s Direct File program, leading to confusion about whether the service would be available this year.
• In its first year, Direct File had more than 140K taxpayers utilize the platform, saving over $5.6M in filing fees for eligible taxpayers — it was expected to be expanded to 25 states in tax year 2024.

Opportunity cost: Direct File is not to be confused with IRS Free File, which is presumably staying since it’s not a woke leftist experiment created by Elizabeth Warren, per Musk. However, if Direct File is indeed heading for the dustbin, one would expect shares of online tax prep companies like IntuitINTU

— down 7% over the last year — and H&R BlockHRB

— up just 16% over the same period — to benefit. Although, there’s no such thing as a free lunch, as cheaper competitors like TaxAct, TaxSlayer, and FreeTaxUSA err on their territory. And free options from Cash.app ($SQ) and GetYourRefund continue to rise in popularity.