Sorry I was unclear. I was trying to speculate on the question, "Why is there an income limit?".
Before digging into this, I thought the IRS set the income limit. (e.g. "We the IRS want all people earning less than $65k to have free tax prep.")
It appears it was the other way around: the memos show the IRS sets the % of the population it wants to have free tax prep services (70%), and the FreeFile income limits are calculated so in theory only the highest (30%) of incomes must pay for tax prep.
So I speculate that the answer to "Why is there an income limit?” may be "It was part of an attempt between the IRS and the private sector to have the richest 30% subsidize everyone else's tax prep."
Before digging into this, I thought the IRS set the income limit. (e.g. "We the IRS want all people earning less than $65k to have free tax prep.")
It appears it was the other way around: the memos show the IRS sets the % of the population it wants to have free tax prep services (70%), and the FreeFile income limits are calculated so in theory only the highest (30%) of incomes must pay for tax prep.
So I speculate that the answer to "Why is there an income limit?” may be "It was part of an attempt between the IRS and the private sector to have the richest 30% subsidize everyone else's tax prep."