The Future of Tax Software on Linux? 58
mengel asks: "So this last week, I repeated my annual ritual of
trashing my scratch partition, making a FAT filesystem on it, booting Microsoft Windows(tm),
and installing tax software to do my taxes.
I had hoped, with the advent of Xandros, and of Linspire (formerly Lindows), that one of these increasingly important commercial companies would have talked someone like Intuit, or the Tax Cut guys, into developing this years tax software against Wine, so that it would also run on Linux under Wine as well as on MSWindows. So what has to happen before the companies who write Tax Cut and TurboTax will do versions that least run under Wine, much less native Linux versions? What can we do to help make that happen?"
"Tax Preparation is the only reason I boot MSWindows anymore, and each year it gets more arduous, as soon I'm going to be forced to upgrade the MSWindows partition to XP, just as a few years ago I had to upgrade from MSWindows 3.1 to MSWindows 98 -- so in effect my tax software costs me double, because I keep getting forced to buy a newer MSWindows upgrade every 3 years or so as well as the tax software."
TurboTax Online (Score:4, Informative)
No need.... (Score:5, Informative)
TaxCut for the Web (Score:4, Informative)
I am in almost the same boat. (Score:3, Informative)
I am as much a free software zealot as the next guy, as a matter of fact this is one of the few areas I would probably disagree with RMS on, I will be the first in line to purchase a tax solution for linux. - It is probably one of the last areas where there is literally NOTHING to compete with the windows platform, not even a substandard work in progress.
I understand the web based solutions, but would really prefer a standalone app if only for illogical person preference reasons.
Actual tax software on your PC? (Score:3, Informative)
Works quite well in Mozilla.
Re:Financial Incentive (Score:3, Informative)
Re:TurboTax Online (Score:3, Informative)
That's funny sure seemed to handle my multiple W-2's just fine this year, same as last year.
Re:No need.... (Score:2, Informative)
It doesn't save any money over using the software locally that I've found so far but it has 3 distinct advantages:
1) Runs Mozilla (though you need to turn on pop-ups for that site since the entire application is in a pop-up)
2) Access from anywhere
3) I don't have to worry about trashing my drive without a backup of the data
And yes, it does contain some sensitive info but I don't have anything in my taxes that I really care if anyone sees beyond my SS# and HRblock.com seems to be no worse at security than anyone else. The only people I wish didn't have access to my tax info is the IRS and I don't get a choice there
If you want they will provide all the same analyses of your taxes as going into their office and they have online support (all for a fee of course), but I've found the information in the program enough to get my taxes done and itemize my mortgage, home office, etc.
Re:No need.... (Score:3, Informative)
For two years I have used TaxAct [taxact.com] online. This year it cost my $17.00 to file both my federal and state taxes.
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