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Swiss Tax Office distributes Mozilla and OpenOffice
David Gerard writes "From Heise (via Mozillazine: taxpayers in the Swiss canton of Geneva are being given a CD with a French version of Mozilla 1.2.1, OpenOffice.org 1.0.1 and tax program GEtax 2002. Rough English translation from Google." This strikes me as a really cool idea. I already get the cards that tell me to file online rather than fill out paper forms, but it still forces me to buy tax software every year.
This is a step that should be made be more governments, to ease the tax process for people who don't want to spend money for a tax program. Jeez, we have to pay the taxes, why do we have to pay for a tax program to pay the taxes??
according to the babelfish translation: "OpenOffice.org 1,0,1 in French for Windows and Linux as well as the Webbrowser Mozilla 1,2,1 in French for Windows, Linux and Mac OS X."
It's nice to see that the tax program is also available for Linux and Mac OS 9 + X= 18
http://www.getax.ch/dyn/ledossier.php?id_rubrique
My spirit takes a journey through my mind...
The headline of the babelfish translation: " OpenOffice and Mozilla distributes Swiss revenue office " They forgot to say In Soviet Russia.
I am not sure what platforms the actual GETax program is available on and whether it is open source - IMO as offical software given out by the government it should be.
Mozilla and OpenOffice are, of course, really great additions, and should bring the wonders of good open source software to the public there (and a standards-compliant browser that actualy works and doesn't live in the Dark Ages)(although I guess people there are probably already quite open-minded).
If only the governments of other MEDC's would start doing this kind of thing (and werent in collusion with M$). It would be a start if they could start storing personal data we entrust them with in non-prorietary formats on open-source OS's - doing anything else seems crazy in a democratic society.
Kudos to the Swiss (who tend to be a more sensible European government). Also
Joe Llywelyn Griffith Blakesley
[This post is in the public domain (copyright-free) unless otherwise stated]
Since when was the IRS responsible to the software companies to keep their revenue stream going, rather than providing a useful tax service to the public?
There is a list of places to file online for free (or a small fee) right from the IRS website.
http://www.irs.gov/app/freeFile/jsp/index.jsp?
I, for one, am trying out Free Tax USA.
This really doesn't change the fact that if we just had a more simple and less convoluted tax system, we wouldn't even need to worry about complex deductions, brackets, taxable income, credits, etc.
I'm not advocating a flat tax. Hell, I'm not even sure what I'm advocating, but if we had a more simple tax code, we wouldn't need to spend that money on tax software every year.
This brings up an interesting point though. Would the makers of Turbo Tax make a move like the RIAA and try to sue the government if we moved to a simple tax system people didn't need software for?
After all, it would technically be destroying their business model.
IMHO this misses the fundamental problem; tax codes in most countries are just too damn complex.
In the United States they've managed to create such a complicated system that with few exceptions, the services of a professional - or the use of sophistcated and costly software - are necessary. This is ridiculous!
My situation is a little bit more complicated than most since I'm American and live in London. Last year my US tax return alone was 88 pages! Unbelievable.
And yeah, I have to use an accounting firm to complete my return even though I've got a Masters in Finance. The cost of an honest mistake discovered years later would be far too high for me to risk it.
So I get to pay KMPG about two thousand Pounds to complete my US and UK tax returns. Great.
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The Swiss canton of Berne has been distributing the TaxMe Software for two years now. It's a Java app, so it runs on any OS. You fill in the tax data, it creates PDF tax forms for you to print out and sign. Or you can even do it all online through a web interface, using the ID/password printed on the physical forms everyone gets by mail. Very slick.
Notice also that this isn't a duplicate story, and that there are no spelling errors!
but it still forces me to buy tax software every year.
Buy software? Here in Brazil, we can download the software from Receita Federal for free, and send them the information online, or go to the nearest Banco do Brasil and give them a floppy disk (for those that don't want / can't send online)