Elon Musk Ally, set up in the US government, said in a late-night email on Saturday that the office behind the popular free online tax returns will be closed and its employees will be let go.
The 18th floor office within General Services Administration (GSA) has created an IRS direct file program that allows free online tax returns. It is a frequent target for Musk, one close associate of the billionaire businessman who holds a key position in the GSA, informed him in an email to staff who arrived around 1am on Saturday that the agency was closing the 18th floor.
According to the message, the firefighted was in support of an executive order issued after Musk launched a second US presidency to cut federal workers to Musk’s so-called “Doctors of Government Efficiency” (DOGE) task force.
“The 18th floor office has been identified as uncritical as part of this stage of GSA power reduction (RIF),” the email said. “This decision was made in an explicit direction from the top level of both the administrative and GSA leadership. While other TTS programs are not affected at this time, more changes are expected in the future.”
The email comes from Thomas Shedd, a 28-year-old former Tesla software engineer who took over as GSA’s head of technology transformation services in late January. It’s not immediately clear what will happen to the 18th floor program, including the direct filing system and the total number of workers the GSA has fired from an office with around 90 employees.
Musk claimed he “deleted” 18F in early February, responding with X to right-wing influencers who accused him of being “the far left” in X. Musk did not elaborate on his statement. This caused confusion as services like the 18F website and its direct file program remained online.
In addition to working on the free tax return program, the 18th floor office worked across government agencies, updating technology and launching new software products. In 2024, we worked on more than 31 projects from different government agencies, including the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA). It has been part of the GSA since 2014.
Shortly after taking over the TTS, Shedd told staff he plans to run the agency like a technology startup and would like to implement an artificial intelligence program across the government. The GSA is one of the key institutions that Musk and his allies have taken over as part of a more broadly, potentially illegal demolition of the federal government, which is cutting services such as humanitarian aid and disease prevention while attempting to restructure the institutions along ideological grounds.
