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Open Source (e-File) Tax Return Software?
If you're an American, it's getting closer and closer to that date we all have come to know (and dread)...tax time! To this end, Weston Hopkins asks: "I am filing my income tax return again this year and was looking at the IRS's e-file option. They list many software companies but I have found none that are free. Does an open-source e-file tax filing project exist?" and a more general query from DarkClown, who is looking for an Open Source equivalent to Turbo Tax. Have there been significant changes in this area since the first time this question was asked?
It's not OSS, but Intuit (Turbo Tax) has a web-based filing option. Don't know how it works (this is a good reason to keep my MS box around) from Mozilla, but it is there.
Well, if he's an Indiana resident, he most likely will. Likewise so would residents of other states. You could theoretically make a sourceforge project out of this if you could somehow garner enough interest from many people.
Best thing to do would probably have a core team work out the basics of a tax program and then have other teams make modules for the different states. Probably in some scripting language (python would be a good choice given good GTK bindings and support as a scripting language in GNOME).
Perhaps the IRS itself should provide a free (perhaps not open source) software solution in order to prevent any sort of liabilty issues affecting developers. It should be in Java for portability, or perhaps a PHP or Perl application running on a secure server. I think liability and complexity are the primary reasons for not having open source tax software.
Some of us don't ;-)
;-)
IRS stands for internal revenue scam*, so the trick is figuring out how to be legally external
Gotta love how certain countries don't tax foreign income
--
* Social (in)security is the greatest ponzi scheme ever pulled.
If it met your needs then it was probably the best tool for the job. My recommendation is just that you double check the results and evaluate them against your priorities. This is good advice for most of your life, but especially taxes.
_____________
I don't want free as in beer. I just want free beer.
I know it's not quite what the poster had in
mind but here's a start.
Fidelity investments makes turbotax for the web
available for FREE to anyone who links from their
site, whether you're a customer of theirs or not.
if you'd like to do your 2000 US Federal (and state if needed) for free, then check out
fidelity's tax link:
http://web300.fidelity.com/qttw/bookmark.jhtml
Saved me about $30 this year.
--chuck
I was really disappointed to find that the IRS didn't have something similar. I was also just very disappointed in the IRS website. It doesn't really jump out at you that it's a government site. At first glance it looks like a magazine or something, called "The Digital Daily", though upon closer inspection of the banner, you can see that it does belong to the IRS.
Those who don't know me, probably shouldn't trust me. Those that do know me, DEFINITELY shouldn't trust me.
I suspect that part of the reason for this is the same as requiring "certified software". They don't want garbled data uploaded into their system. If you use "certified software" then it's not too likely that your tax return will show up on their computer with a stated gross income of ten cents and a tax refund owing of six million dollars. Like any other large corporation, they like to know where the data is coming from and know who to choke if it gets buggered up. "Joe in his basement" isn't going to impress them.
If you're a zombie and you know it, bite your friend!
I've always found that they didn't get me as big of a refund as filling out the tax forms by hand.
The only reason we used them was because we could e-file, and get the refund deposited directly in our account (Supposedly as soon as 10 days from the IRS getting it). She'd already done the taxes by hand, and came up with the same amount. Could we have gotten back more? Maybe.. but since we didn't want to go to a CPA and were going to mail them in, this was nice just to make it quicker.
Three dits, four dits, two dits, dah!
Radio, radio, rah rah rah!
It takes them about 3 days to process your e-filed return and they cut a check within a week. I did mine 3 weeks ago, it may get worse as a lot more people start submitting them.
-Pat
Because 15 April is a Sunday, you have until 16 April to file.
Let the procrastination begin...tomorrow!
Audit rates are much higher for people who e-file.
If the following applies to you:
1. You are a own a business (including doctors, lawyers, 'freelance' consultants)
2. You have held 5 or more jobs in the last 7 years
3. You itemize deductions
DO NOT EFILE! There is a 30-60% higher chance of you getting a microscope stuck right up your ass in the form of a tax audit!
Type up the forms and mail them in. It takes them like one week more to write a refund check.
Conformity is the jailer of freedom and enemy of growth. -JFK
Gawd, what an awful web site! Totally weird and unhelpful (unless you're a spouse looking for relief).
sulli
RTFJ.
Or it could be that it was a sweet deal for some campaign contributions to that particular minister's election campaign to Parliament. Any system that relies on client software to protect itself against "garbled data" is asking for the mainframe version of Armageddon.
CEE5210S The signal SIGHUP was received.
Check out TaxAct. Their basic version is free, and came pretty close to what Kiplinger TaxCut did when I compared them last year. I didn't try the deluxe version, but it's come down to something like $7.00 if you buy it online.
And just so you're not surprised, you do realize that E-filing your taxes isn't free, right? It costs like 5 bucks or something like that. The "Free E-Filing" in TaxCut and TurboTax is a mail-in rebate on the cost of your E-Filing.
This space for rent. Call 1-800-STEAK4U
Oh, but it is. It's in ANSI x.12 EDI format.
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I've tried them the last couple of years, but I've always found that they didn't get me as big of a refund as filling out the tax forms by hand. My taxes are easy, I just take the standard deduction. There's not much excuse for getting them wrong.
_____________
I don't want free as in beer. I just want free beer.
Not if Microsoft's Jim Allchin has anything to do with it...
Well... I mean its open source as in you can go to the IRS and ask them for the tax code laws and they will give them to you.
But as far as software like turbotax? This is one area where I don't think you'll find an open source equivilant (though I could be wrong). The thing is, tax code is so friggin complicated, a small error in your code could trigger an audit. And as all taxpayers know, thats the last thing you want.
So there's doing it yourself on paper, taking it to an accountant, or using a $20 piece of software.
Personally, I prefer an accountant, because they think of things that even the software misses, and usually they more than pay for themselves in the money they save me. Last year before I took my taxes in, I did them as best I could using turbo tax, then I took the same figures to the accountant. Badda bing, The accountant had me paying almost $200 less than turbo tax would have had me pay. And since it was a national tax service I don't think they are going to get me audited.
The government provide software for this purpose.
They also provide links to other suppliers, and in an almost-open-source move, notes for developers.
Ok its not going to be much use to you as the US tax rules are so different. But it made me wonder - are the efile formats the same worldwide?
The Canadian Customs and Revenue Agency introduced "netfiling" to the general public this year (last year it was an invite-only pilot project). You have to use "certified" software to do this -- and there are five certified software packages, all of them commercial. The software packages produce .tax files which must be uploaded to the CCRA website.
.tax file not in a logical format (do we really need to use a binary format for 4K files? what's wrong with a standard line-break-and-comma-delimited file?) but the format isn't documented anywhere -- meaning that even if you have done your taxes by hand and are computer literate, you can't file online without shelling out $25 for some tax preparation software.
Not only is the
You'd think that, considering the cost savings for the government to have people file returns electronically rather than on paper, they'd make it *cheaper*, not more expensive.
Tarsnap: Online backups for the truly paranoid
Hmmm. No employee of the IRS can speak on behalf of the IRS without approval. So let's just say I'm some guy with some experience in this stuff. I'm not saying where I work or that anything in this post is official, OK?
Basically, tax prep software that is e-file enabled will do your forms, wrap them up in one big package, and send them to an intermediary. NOT the IRS! The intermediary is subject to all sorts of requirements regarding security and other things. They have to be open to constant scrutiny from the IRS. It would be silly to allow 50 million people to directly update a database at the IRS - there would be too many people who sent in garbage of one type or another.
The intermediary puts together big packages of files that have been checked for problems and transmits those to the IRS.
So why is there no open source efile software? The biggest reason I can think of is security. The IRS approves software for efiling based on a number of factors including their comfort level that the software works nearly perfectly and won't result in anyone trying to send them a bunch of garbage. Open source projects willing to go through a code audit from the IRS aren't exactly common. Open source projects that are able to turn out software to do a complex task essentially error free and be usable by my mother aren't terribly common either. And both those things are necessary to make it to that list the original question referenced.
Of course, there are exceptions. There are some "industrial-strength" tax prep packages that aren't particulary easy to use and are targeted to tax prep offices, CPAs, etc. There are some names on that approved software list that most people wouldn't recognize because they are not tageted to average consumer. But the need to have truly locked-down software and keep it completely current with the law remains and would sink most open source attempts.
Another reason is because those intermediaries use the software to get paid. TaxWise, for example, is the package used by the IRS, itself, when you walk into the office and ask to have your return prepared. To get TaxWise to work, you have to activate it with a code from the company that is keyed to a special number issued to you by the IRS, the EFIN or Electronic Filer Identification Number. TaxWise then acts as the intermediary. Do you think they want to accept efiled returns from anyone who didn't spend the money to buy their software?
The same deal goes for TurboTax. They will act as your intermediary for a fee. Or, if you make *very* little money, they'll act as your intermediary for free. Either way, though, you will have had to have bought the software from them in the first place.
Tax prep software, *especially* efile software, is something that will be done by commercial software houses. It just doesn't fit with open source.
For heavy-duty and far more technical information about this topic (I've seriously over-simplified some things in this post), try the IRS efile site for software developers. Yes, there is such a thing and it's available to the public. If you really want to know about file specifications, scripted testing of software, and other deeply techy kinds of things, you might want to pick up a copy of Publication 1346, Electronic Return File Specifications and Record Layouts for Individual Income Tax Returns. You can get in dead tree format or entirely online.
All this info can be gotten by digging just a few links below here.
My fiancee used Hdvest.com, who lets you file for free through their system. The only problem I noticed is that, under Netscape 4.76/Linux, it wouldn't open the form to enter W-2 information, had to do it in IE on Winders. Didn't try Mozilla tho...
Three dits, four dits, two dits, dah!
Radio, radio, rah rah rah!
A couple of years ago I saw a command-line Perl tax form app on Freshmeat. I tried it and couldn't get it to work, even with help from the developer. I couldn't find it now.
Honestly, though, would you seriously trust your tax return to something from Freshmeat? I was happy that this year i could do my taxes in KSpread instead of Excel like I usually do.
Unsettling MOTD at my ISP.