Ask Slashdot: Open Source Tax Software? 387
An anonymous reader writes "I finally started looking at my taxes and instead of handing over my personal information and money to TurboTax I was wondering if there were any recommendations for freely available/open source tax software? Ideally, the data would be stored in a portable, open format. I wouldn't really need a GUI, but something that filled out PDF forms would be nice." It's a question that just won't go away. Open source solution or not, if you're a U.S. taxpayer, the deadline for filing is nearly to hand.
For this you want a professional product (Score:5, Insightful)
Lawyers can offer open source services as well. (Score:2)
You make a good point, but if an open source organization were to offer malpractice insurance, lawyers could offer their services on an open source basis as well. They would be no different than any other Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) including documentation authors.
In Canada at least (Score:3)
Not open source, but free (as in Beer) is Studio Tax http://www.studiotax.com/ [studiotax.com] which is netfile certified
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If not - She need a new broker. You don't need TurboTax to fill in what amounts to a simple spreadsheet with a one-line summary.
Re:For this you want a professional product (Score:5, Interesting)
Yes, go use some free open source "stuff" to file your taxes. Hope it works, hope it's accurate. Oh, and hope they update it multiple times every god damn year to keep up to date with the ever changing tax code. But hey, it's free right. Why would anyone want to actually support software developers by "paying" for software.
Seriously, what is the obsession here with people wanting everything for free? You want to do your taxes for free, sit down with the paper form and do them. If Turbotax is too expensive for you, try TaxAct. It was $20 to efile both state and federal this year.
Re:For this you want a professional product (Score:5, Insightful)
Oh, and hope they update it multiple times every god damn year to keep up to date with the ever changing tax code.
I think you've identified the real problem. It's not that there is no open source tax software, it's that your tax system is so complex that it requires software to file the return.
Re:For this you want a professional product (Score:4, Informative)
I don't think it's so much that as the principle of the thing.
By demanding you file your tax online yet not providing a half-sane product to do this free of charge, the ability to file a tax return is itself subject to another charge that you can't easily avoid. Effectively, another tax.
We have something similar in the UK - companies are legally obliged to file their tax returns online by submitting a file in a particular format. The format itself is open and based on XML, but pretty much the only things that support it are commercial applications aimed at the accounting industry. Which means you are forced to pay an accountant even if your affairs are simple enough you could easily fill in the forms yourself.
IIRC they may also have a form online you can fill in. Haven't checked lately...
Re:For this you want a professional product (Score:4, Informative)
I've been looking for a reliable, complete FOSS alternative for years. I think, as others have said, it doesn't exist because nobody (me included if I knew how!) would do that kind of tedium for free.
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My government does my taxes for me (Score:5, Interesting)
Seriously, what is the obsession here with people wanting everything for free? You want to do your taxes for free, sit down with the paper form and do them.
Where I live, the process goes like this:
AT THE START OF EACH YEAR: The government send you your tax card. It tells you your tax percentage, etc. (based on assumption that you earn as much as you did the previous year). You take that to your employer, he pays the taxes directly from your wage and there is nothing more you NEED to do. If your income is very different than it was the previous year, you get taxed the wrong amount and the government sends you either returns or a bill at the end of the year. If you know your income has changed and don't want a large bill/can't give the government any money temporarily, you can fill out a simple 1 page (2 sides) form that they sent you with the card (or submit it online) and then they'll send you a recalculated tax card.
DURING THE YEAR: Most people don't need to do anything. If your income changes a lot and you don't want to pay the government any extra (which they would, of course, return at the end of the year) or don't want a large bill, you can call them, visit an office or fill out the info online and they'll send you a recalculated tax card.
AT THE END OF THE YEAR: They tell you that they want to either return some money (and ask you to inform them if your bank account number has changed) or they send you a bill. Again, you get a simple 1 page (two-sided) form (or can fill it out online) to tell them about anything that might affect the decision (such as having earned/lost a lot of money by trading stock or any similar things).
For example, I got a bit better paying job last year but was too lazy to inform them so they now sent me a letter "You've earned more than we thought you would, so you've paid 790 euros too little taxes. Here are two bills of 395 euros, you have six months to pay the first and twelve months to pay the second. Here is a form you can use to complain if we've made any incorrect decisions." I might fill out the form because I've spent quite a few euros to buying stuff that indirectly helps me earn income (books to get certifications, etc.) and that sort of stuff is tax deductible. I don't expect to reduce the bill by a lot but it's going to take just 3 minutes or so, so why not.
I've never understood why does USA have such a complex system that the government doesn't know how much they should pay taxes...
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As a great fan of open source and community-based development, I have to sadly hang my head and agree.
I have some investments that, due to their particular details, have stumped multiple tax preparers. The (professional) software I've looked at doesn't even support this particular item, so I have little hope for my beloved open source. Even if there was a community-developed tax program, I personally wouldn't trust its accuracy over time. Yes, I could go through myself and verify that all of the year's chan
Re:For this you want a professional product (Score:5, Insightful)
Well, since the government defines the taxes, in the interest of its citizens the government should also provide a no frills open source (BSD or such) implementation of the tax code... Third parties could then build better interfaces (facilities to import from other sources etc) on that, while knowing that the base code complies with all the applicable rules and submits the requires end data to the IRS.
For the government to set arbitrarily complex tax rules, and then force you to pay third party suppliers to clean up the mess it forces on you is wrong.
Everyone should have a free, government supplied and transparent way of completing their taxes.
Personally i wouldn't trust a closed source package at all, since i cannot verify what its doing.
Re:For this you want a professional product (Score:4, Funny)
I have some investments that, due to their particular details, have stumped multiple tax preparers.
They never tell you this part of being a drug runner, do they? No, it's all "see the world" and "make people happy!". Sigh.
Straddles (Score:2)
I am going to guess Straddles – a subclass of constructive sales. The IRS does not want you to effectively sells something this tax year and delay the payment for years. It used to be that one could delay taxes for years.
Some of the regulations conflict with each other since they were written to stop specific transactions while not considering the whole situation. Others are vague on purpose, to discourage people from getting anywhere close – but it does leave professionals guessing.
I have seen
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Tax rules and tax law are the epitome of the "hard and boring functionality that no one wants to write, because its not cool, not visible, and definitely not shiny" that plague all projects, both open source and closed source. Tax rules and laws also have nuances that really need to be understood in order to translate correctly into code - again, something really boring and hard that needs to be done.
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That and I would always be wary of any tax softwre not backed up with warranty on its accuracy no matter if it's FOSS or not. You don't want some subtle bug to cause an audit to hit you and then you find out that your software's developer disclaims all liability. Besides most tax companies offer pretty comprehensive editions for free for the average tax filer.
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BS. I have a 9-to-5, have a mortgage, play in the stock market, do contracting on the side, and do my own taxes. And I'd say I've just described more than what 90% of US taxpayers need to file. And seriously? Mind-numbingly easy. Painfully easy. Embarrassing-that-professionals-do-that-for-a-living easy.
Doing ones own taxes involves nothing harder than "add up all the box 2s o
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Except, you don't need to handle everything - You just need to know the program's limitations, state the big ones up front, and alert the user when they run into one of the less common ones.
I suppose this may count as a matter of interpretation, but I didn't take the FP's question to mean "why can't IBM file its t
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In most other countries, people with typical (ie 9-5 job, accounts with major institutions, mortgage on one property etc) finances don't need to file taxes, it's all done for them automatically and appropriate taxes are deducted directly from income sources.
It's only people with especially complex finances who fill out tax returns.
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Taxes are withheld from your income. But there are also a myriad of deductions and adjustments that can be applied that make it more complex.
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I've had to do my taxes by hand for the past 2 years because I am a non-resident alien, which most software is unable to handle. Isn't it nice that they give the hardest job to the people who know the least about the tax system in this country?
Although most of the work is straightforward, there is a lot of terminology that has to be learned. For example, your residency status at the federal level is determined differently at state level, so you have to go trawling through the 70 page 'how to fill in' docume
Re:For this you want a professional product (Score:5, Insightful)
BS. I have a 9-to-5, have a mortgage, play in the stock market, do contracting on the side, and do my own taxes. And I'd say I've just described more than what 90% of US taxpayers need to file. And seriously? Mind-numbingly easy. Painfully easy. Embarrassing-that-professionals-do-that-for-a-living easy.
Doing ones own taxes involves nothing harder than "add up all the box 2s on your W2s and box 4s on your 1099s and enter that total on line 62 of your 1040". Totally mechanical crap that doesn't require the least bit of thought or familiarity with tax law.
For the rest of us, don't try to make this sound harder than the reality. Plug and frickin' chug, baby!
@pla: +1 because you are a 1%-er. ( intended as a wake up; I can't afford the 1% moniker, maybe I'm in the top 10) /. audience, the "algorithm" of following the instructions, including branches.. plugging & chugging when we fill in variables, and making an informed decision on deductibles - is all likely within our grasp.
Sure, for the
However, look around at the rest of the country.
Most Americans cannot balance a checkbook [1], [2].
The basic tax guide "Publication 17" is over 300 pages long. [3]
The instructions for the basic 1040 form is at 100 pages [4].
Just answering the questions "What's New?", "Do I have to file", and "Where do I file" ( [4] pages 6-7) incorporate 4 more pages of tables and worksheets referenced in the text ( pp 8-11), and suggest the taxpayer review 10 separate publications for clarifications, outside the 'core' paperwork of Pub 17 and 1040 instructions.
point: it is complex, even to "just follow the instructions". Not everyone is the sort who just jumps in, presses ON, and only looks for manuals after it doesn't work. ( I am.. but not everyone is.)
If you are lucky enough to have a job, and a mortgage, play in the stock market, and do contracting on the side.. you are a pretty smart and fairly motivated person. You can multitask. You can prioritize tasks, and see projects through to the finish. .. when it comes to the word "unemployed", the US Govt needs to take a lesson from Inigo Montoya, “You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means”
Only 58% of the US population is employed.. or 42% is not. [5] - BLS report " population/employment ratio"
Never mind making educated decisions about deductions like work expenses and medical costs. I don't think the average American could fill out the typical medical insurance claim form, never mind read one and extract information for tax purposes.
How many Americans - picked "at random" - would you trust to balance your checkbook, or to fill out your tax forms?
Heck, I don't even trust a "jury of my peers" to render a sensible verdict.
Most folks I have met can't follow a 2 -page recipe in a cookbook, or remember the plot to a 200-page novel unless the movie and/or starred Heath Ledger or Megan Fox.
If every citizen was encouraged to do their own taxes, imagine how much WE taxpayers would be paying to clean that mess up?
Don't give people more credit than they deserve. Look at our last few elections.
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acting like everyone needs a tax lawyer and accountant is skipping the fact that the people who want the software are by definition very interested and capable of doing it themselves.
way to distract with a strawman, though.
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Actually, he said "this type of product" is created with the oversight of tax lawyers and accountants. And he's right - because writing software to calculate all of the arcane nuances of tax stuff is something that requires fairly detailed knowledge of the tax code, and how it works.
There's a difference between "everybody needs a tax lawyer and an accountant, no matter how simple their particular return may be," and "writing generalized software that implements (correctly) the interacting tax codes of 50 s
Re:For this you want a professional product (Score:5, Insightful)
Everything you said PLUS tax software must conform to an extremely rigid release schedule, where neither dates nor functionality are negotiable at all, which is not something I've ever seen from open source.
Re:For this you want a professional product (Score:4, Interesting)
I am a lawyer. I used to do my taxes myself without purchasing a tax program. I wrote a spreadsheet to do the calculations, because doing them by hand was tedious, complicated, and error prone.
One year in the 1990s I did my taxes using my own spreadsheet. A few months later, I received a letter from the IRS explaining that I had miscalculated my taxes, that they had recalculated them, and they were enclosing a check payable to me for the $1,100 that I had overpaid.
In that moment I realized that I could no longer rely on my own efforts and understanding to complete my tax returns. If I had left $1,100 on the table, I had probably left more than the IRS would tell me about.
After that, I started to use tax programs. I use H&R Block At Home, but I am sure that Turbo Tax is also useful. At any rate they are a lot cheaper than paying too much taxes.
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Re:For this you want a professional product (Score:5, Informative)
no, the reason turbo tax costs money is they have teams of accountants translate new tax laws in every state into easy to fill out forms and the math functions behind them
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You realize there's more to many peoples' taxes than the single 1040-EZ you have to file... right?
If you think that you can simply "follow the steps" like it's a mad libs, then you're either overpaying (in which case, thanks) or underpaying (in which case, pay up) on your taxes.
But then, it's always been the case that those who know the least grossly overestimate their ability and competence.
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Oh yeah, just look at the Self Employed tax forms you need to file if you run a business: Sole Proprietor, LLC, or Partnership. Those are such a complicated mess that you could easily screw something up. It's the reason there is quick books software to do most of the tracking for you. Lets not forget the taxes you have to pay on employee wages.
How many people realize that the taxes taken out on the W2s aren't the only income taxes paid?
Yep, every business that pays wages has to pay taxes on the wages they p
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Yes, I could do my taxes on paper if I had to, but that doesn't mean I can write software to do your taxes.
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I'd say that what turbotax etc is great for is telling you is WHICH forms you have to fill out.
For a couple of decades I didn't bother with any software and did everything by pencil and copied the result in ink and mailed it in. This meant filling in all the different worksheets and calculations, only to find out that I don't qualify for form 123XYZ or the AMT doesn't apply. This took 4-5 hours.
I went to turbotax's website the other day and by going step by step and answering the questions I finished my t
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except i don't want to fill out any forms. turbo tax takes the info i type in and makes up completed forms automatically. very nice when your tax returns are 50 to 100 pages like mine
Re:For this you want a professional product (Score:5, Interesting)
First, it’s not Turbo Tax which is lobbing for this stuff. They don’t have too. There is enough lobbyist pushing their special interest and crack pot positions searching for short term gain that they don’t need to spend the money – it’s done for them.
Second, It’s not that it’s technically difficult; it’s the Certification and fast turn around time.
It’s not like a word processor in which you can start off with the basic stuff and add stuff later. Nor is it static like a word processor – each year the IRS tweaks stuff. You kind of need the whole package up and running – perfectly - by February 1st.
At least they make the on-line software free for the easy, low income, returns.
That being said, I would like the IRS to come out with some basic tax forms which do the calculations and look up by itself. i.e., you would still need input the numbers, but the simple “multiple by 28%” and “Look up income in tax table” would be automated.
Or even better, tax simplification. Less work spent on make work, fewer loop holes to abuse.
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That being said, I would like the IRS to come out with some basic tax forms which do the calculations and look up by itself. i.e., you would still need input the numbers, but the simple “multiple by 28%” and “Look up income in tax table” would be automated.
I think the IRS has something like that, but not many people use it because it's only setup for just basic taxes (and didn't handle state taxes).
A lot of it comes down to time and trust. Doing it by hand is time consuming; time that could be spent on more valuable things. Also, non-e-filed returns take longer to get their refunds (I e-filed and got one of my refunds a week after filing).
Re:For this you want a professional product (Score:4, Insightful)
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=9112083 [npr.org] I nearly choked when I read that. "Big Brother is watching my keystrokes"?! WTF? Of course they are, that's the point. They're not just watching, they're recording every value I enter into the form, so they can keep it in a file with my name, address, and social security number on it, and then use against me in a court of law! They get the exact same information if I use TurboTax, the only difference is TurboTax gets to watch my keystrokes, too, and then charge me for the privilege.
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Re:For this you want a professional product (Score:5, Insightful)
Actually it was a good reply and worth taking note.
Just because 'hurr hurr derpa no free software that does all my taxes for me' isn't what you were hoping for doesn't make it useless.
They were correct. This is highly specialized software for a specific purpose operated based on state/country/province etc.>
This is true but no one has yet mentioned that there IS a free (as in beer) way to do your taxes: obtain the necessary (freely available) forms, read them, understand them, and complete them. There is even phone based help if you have specific questions, as well as many books available at your local library. There, your tax forms just got filed without spending a dime! If you don't want to invest this time or don't want to take the risk of doing them incorrectly, then supposing that a free option would be satisfactory is kind of laughable. It's like (oh yes, we do love our similes) wanting seat belts in your car (oh yes, we do love our CAR similes) but not wanting to pay for them, and still wanting them to be just as safe. Surely, by now someone made something that was just as safe but was also free, right?
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No, stamps are much more than a dime these days...
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Personally, I don't believe in paying more money to file taxes. Plus, e-filing makes the IRS's job much easier. Why should I do that, when I can instead send in paper forms and give them a hard time, and save money in the process?
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Re:For this you want a professional product (Score:5, Funny)
It didn't take long for that 18 year old coder to respond.
Re:For this you want a professional product (Score:5, Informative)
Also, TurboTax's online tool is free if you make under $31,000 (about $14.90/hr at full time). My girlfriend did it that way - it's called Freedom Edition or something.
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It's a 1040 EZ. The whole point of the EZ form is that ANYONE could do it.
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I think 1040EZ is up to $100k individual or combined this year.
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Don't forget that the filing is free but there may still be a fee from H&R block to get a deposit.
So they're charging money for a free service. Love it, huh.
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Man, poor people get all the breaks.
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Hmmm... wasn't free for me back in 2009 (when I had only unemployment income). The U.S. return was free but not state and local.
Oh and I choose open source because it's cheap and easy to get (versus MS Office or Photoshop). But so too is TurboTax, so no reason to try an alternative.
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Where can you deduct rent?
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Massachusetts.
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@sjhillman .. "freedom edition" +1 informative ...can send you to jail" .. You do realize it is much more likely that you'll just get an interest-bearing permanent debt.
@AC "FUD" -1 NOT
@Loughlia "
The IRS and Student Loan providers will work backwards from your Social Security death benefit of $300-ish if they have to. Only in rare cases, where the headlines serve a purpose more than the recovery of the money, - or if there is malice or fraud, does someon
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Edit: "this one works for filing up to $57K" : http://www.irs.gov/efile/index.html [irs.gov]
sorry~!
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Besides, if you use some third-party product, you have some liability protection. If you use the IRS, you don't.
Re:For this you want a professional product (Score:5, Insightful)
Year after year, the IRS has proven in independent tests to be incompetent at understanding their own rules. Only a fool would allow the IRS to "help" them with their return.
In all fairness, they aren't the IRS' rules. They are Congress', and the IRS has the thankless task every year of trying to figure them out.
Back when I was a postdoc living in Canada I kicked a tax question about my return all the way up to the corporate HQ of H&R Block. (My mom has worked for them for ~30 years and called in some favors) The end result? They had no idea. It came down to exactly how you read one incredibly obscure clause in the thousands of pages of US tax code, and if you gave the wording to 100 people 50 of them probably would have picked one interpretation and 50 the other.
(I picked the one that zeroed out my taxes for the year. I didn't get audited.)
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At least it did last year. I assume it's still there, but I haven't started my taxes yet this year...
Re:For this you want a professional product (Score:5, Informative)
For complex returns, that may be correct. But there's no reason there can't be an open source product with consists of nothing more than an electronic version of the forms which allows you to type rather than print and which automatically does the math (on the forms) for you. Then it either prints or electronically submits the return. It's no different from picking up the paper forms and filling them out yourself. You're responsible for selecting the correct forms, knowing which laws apply, etc.
As amazing as this seems, the IRS (and many state and muni tax agencies) have in fact figured out how to produce a form-style PDF that can be filled in ENTIRELY electronically. The IRS does make you do the math yourself, but I am sure you can find an open source calculator to help with that, right? Many state and munis seem to do this better, with forms that run all the math for you and can be submitted electronically. And believe it or not they even make them easy to find via Google. The wonder of it all!
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Year after year, the IRS lists simple math errors (including transposition errors) as the single most common problem they encounter with returns.
Given that PDFs can have semi-active content (Hell, they support full-blown Javascript) for input validation, why not USE that feature to reduce their most common problem?
Going further, why not include all the common tax forms in one file
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Bam, enter a half-dozen numbers in the right places, and hit "print". Total prep time, 30 seconds.
You might well ask, then, why they can't add a simple wizard to semi-intelligently ask for those half-dozen numbers - But to answer that will cost you $40, payable to Intuit.
If you have only six tax-related figures to input and you aren't filing the 1040 EZ form (free to do on TaxAct, Turbotax, HRblock, and others) then you already messed up. Go back to the start and try again.
Open Tax Solver (Score:5, Informative)
Here's one: https://sourceforge.net/projects/opentaxsolver/ [sourceforge.net]
Having said that, I have found that paying a professional has always been a worthwhile investment. I have a masters degree in mathematics, so it's not a question of the calculations, but my accountant knows things about tax law that I don't, and keeps me from getting audited while getting me the best refunds that the law allows.
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The math itself is pretty simple... I don't think there's anything beyond basic addition/subtraction and percentage. However, knowing when you can and can't apply it is the tricky part. The only thing preventing me from doing the 1040EZ form is my student loan interest and that alone made paying for tax software worth it (even though I still didn't get anymore back than I would have with the 1040EZ... still nice to know).
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exactly. I had a guy once ( i moved away, cant use him now) that would look through my papers, ask very interesting questions, and find ways to apply laws to my situation. saved me thousands in fees and penalties in ways that I wasnt aware of. Some people are worth paying very well for the service that their knowledge can provide. This accountant had to stay current and remember years of experience to provide the quality service that he gave me.
Re:Calculations (Score:3)
IANAMM (I am not a Master's in Math). I find the calculations in tax law rather evil-hard. It's a different kind of hard that "higher math" - it's the numerical interlocks that are brutal. I'm rusty so I'm making this up as pseudo-taxcode, but stuff like the sentence below are typical *easy* tax law!
"You own a rental building and rent 2 units out to tenants and live in the third. You bought the building first as part of a partnership then later acquired the whole thing, so your basis calculations are alread
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With 207 downloads in 8 years, and 71% recommendation rate (5/8 users recommend this product!) how could you possibly go wrong. There's even a screenshot from 2004 (which looks like it's from 1994), so you know you're using a quality up-to-date product.
You should learn to read a bit.
207 downloads (This week)
Take a look at the timeline [sourceforge.net]
Guessing not.. (Score:2)
There are lots of programmers out there with diverse interests, but tax law seems like the kind of thing you need to pay people to deal with, and as far as I know no one has ponied up the cash.
At the very least, you need to pay people to confirm everything you've done is correct. I don't know where liability would fall if your taxes were incorrect due to a bug in libretax or whatever, but I don't think I'd want to find out ;p
Re:Guessing not.. (Score:4, Informative)
Liability always falls on the person filing the tax. Even with commercial software like TurboTax. This is why Intuit, H&R Block, etc offer liability protection and audit assistance as a selling point - to help reduce your actual liability.
Fun Fact: Even if the IRS screws up, the taxpayer is still liable.
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And the gubmint gets to level fines that would be illegal for anyone else. Had a friend who was a few months late sending off state taxes of $113. Got a penalty/interest bill for $107. Wish I was joking. Try and put a 95% penalty into a promissory note and watch how fast it gets laughed out of court.
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Tax law is constantly in flux. So tax software is more like a service than a product. You need yearly updates to remain current. You can't just use last year's software even if it is a commercial version.
This "support" model is not what Free Software is good at.
Taxes are also not simple. If yours are non-trivial, then you are far better off paying a competent professional instead of trying to be miserly with the attempts to replace an accountant with software.
The value of even the commercial tax software is
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Well, the "support" model is not what free software is good at. Free software can do it just fine.
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Slightly on-topic...this site [taxmama.com] might be a good place to get specific tax questions answered.
Just be careful (Score:2)
Be careful. While any such FOSS tools might be fully accurate, sometimes it's worth extra money to ge the gaurantees and backing from a TurboTax, H&R Block, etc. in case there are any inaccuracies. And you can export out yoyr return as a pdf for your records. Sometimes ideology is not as important as getting backing in case the IRS comes snooping. *shrug*
Excel 1040 (Score:5, Informative)
http://home.mchsi.com/~taxcalculator/ [mchsi.com]
Not Open Source, but at least it's free (Score:3, Informative)
I'm a CPA and I would recommend using taxact.com. While it's not open source, it is free for any income level (for federal filing) and user friendly (if you can ignore the upselling of the deluxe version along the way). Given the frequency with which the tax law changes, it's doubtful a FOSS solution will emerge in this segment.
Government should give away such software. (Score:5, Insightful)
Tax compliance is in Federal interest, and with standard Free and Open software everyone could use the same application.
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The tax code should be DEFINED that way (Score:4, Insightful)
An amazing amount of ambiguity and crap in the tax code would go away if the Government were required to publish a program in Java (probably best balance of portability, capability, and specification) and that program WAS the definition of the tax code.
This would have the nice side effect of keeping lawyers who can't think formally (in the mathematical sense) away from tax law.
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I agree with the idea, but the Tax Software companies spend a lot of money to make sure this never happens:
http://www.consumercal.org/article.php?id=127
I have seen other examples, but that was the first one a little bit of googling turned up.
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Very true...
Everyone filing in the same way would make it much easier to track errors and investigate how someone came to a particular calculation, while having the code open would allow people to see exactly how the software came to its conclusion.
It would also be a fair system, since every tax payer would have equal access to the same software.
They could also try simplifying the tax system. A simpler system makes for less errors, less loopholes, less scope for tax evasion and much easier prosecution of an
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Starting last year, I begun paying US tax (I'm a non-resident Alien so I pay both the US tax and my home country taxes, in this case Brazil) and I find it mind boggling that there is not a government software for these. Specially since the US tax code is arcane and byzantine, and in some cases borderline ridiculous. It explains why there is such a huge industry behind tax filling there.
Here in Brazil we have had an official tool for the past 8 years IIRC. Done in Java also, so you can run pretty much everyw
The Main Barrier (Score:3)
The main barrier is that tax software is different every year. Each year the tax code is changed then published. This published tax code is not readable by mortals. It is read by tax lawyers who work with the tax prep software makers to make sure that this years tax code is reflected in the tax prep software.
As much as I love FOSS, I doubt that a volunteer community would be able to pull off this level of complexity and do it on time each year.
Being that it would be a community effort, what happens if the guy who is in charge of component X gets a new job and can't devote his time to getting that component out the door on time. In most FOSS communities this is not a problem. That component just doesn't get worked on until someone picks up the torch later on. In tax prep software this would be a showstopper. The whole thing would grind to a halt if the whole piece of software does not reflect accurately the current year's tax code.
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The main barrier is that tax software is different every year. Each year the tax code is changed then published. This published tax code is not readable by mortals. It is read by tax lawyers who work with the tax prep software makers to make sure that this years tax code is reflected in the tax prep software.
As much as I love FOSS, I doubt that a volunteer community would be able to pull off this level of complexity and do it on time each year.
Then factor in that each jurisdiction has differing tax codes. Open Source works really well when developers have an itch they need scratched, and can find other similar developers from a diverse community. I may be an expert developer with decades of experience, but would you really want a developer (i.e.: not a tax expert) from British Columbia, Canada, writing tax algorithms for someone in Texas?
Taxes are different from other OSS problems in that there are thousands of different jurisdictions, with co
IRS Site has Free Options (Score:5, Informative)
If your main criteria is "freely available" and not "open source", and your adjusted gross income is less than $57K, you can just fill out the forms for free [irs.gov]. It uses Adobe Flash if you have an aversion to such things, and there doesn't appear to be anything open source about it.
If your AIG is more than $57K, your tax situation is probably such that you ought to be handing over some money to a pro or Turbo Tax.
Lots of free options for Canadian tax payers (Score:3)
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Seconded. Which reminds me, better get on with that :)
Gratis tax software In Canada (Score:2)
For income tax in Canada, have a look at http://www.studiotax.com/en/main.htm [studiotax.com]. It's free as in beer, but I don't know about libre. WIndows only.
-- hendrik
Manufactured by unskilled labor (Score:3)
I have a fantastic tax preparation system: Mark Frenchell. And the best part is it was built using a very small company of only two people: Howard and Josephine Frenchell.
http://www.excel1040.com/ (Score:3)
http://www.excel1040.com/ [excel1040.com]
Free, works in open office, has been doing this for 15 years.
Produced the same results as professional software.
Probably not good if you have some new tax activity in your life until you see it done right once.
I.e. "This year, for the first time, I'm doing my own taxes".
I.e. "This year, for the first time, I started buying and selling stocks".
I.e. "This year, for the first time, I started renting property to others".
The form is there- but you have to know to fill it out and how to fill it out.
I used it in Openoffice or Libreoffice and it worked great. I have a complicated return and have been doing my own returns for the last 15 years. This sheet made it much easier than doing taxes by hand. It took under 2 hours to do my taxes.
Highly Recommended.
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You mean like Windows users that steal anything that's not nailed down?
I use Free Software because it's not crap. It helps that it's a re-implementation of a good design (namely Unix). I would pay a pretty penny for it if I had to. Nearly did with Solaris x86.
That said: I wouldn't trust my taxes to free software, expensive software, or underpaid drones that aren't real tax professionals.
Taxes are the only part of the legal profession where a post-JD degree is required to practice in the field.
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If you owe money they'll whomp you with penalties you cannot imagine (like 200% the difference) Been there done that. My specific problem was related to DCRA with both parents employed interacting both with each other's limit and some other child credit.
There is no theoretical way they could have the data for how much you donated to church or paid in medical bills unless you send the receipts and donation letters to them, so I'm mystified about this "give you deductions".
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As expected when i was done i found that i would be getting a moderate refund. (I try to set up my deductions to make sure that happens, the amount of interest i'm theoreticall
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I'm not sure how complicated a tax return he would have in the UK, but for most people it's either non-existent or very simple.
There's an online tool (provided by the government). The paper form [hmrc.gov.uk] is 6 pages, but there's lots of space, guidelines and explanatory text.
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Aren't tax returns public information anyway? What information would you be "handing over" to TurboTax that anybody else couldn't get with a properly-formatted FOIA request to the IRS anyway?
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Out of interest, what happens if you get audited, and the auditor finds that you have actually been over paying your tax?
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Any such programs run on linux? or freebsd? or openbsd?
Or is it actually $20 plus cost of windows or osx plus cost of compatible hardware?