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Tax Time Again: Any Linux Solutions?
vettemph writes "As a Linux user, I've used Intuit's Turbo Tax On The Web in the past, but I don't like paying someone $20 to $30 to submit my forms. For the last few years I've been filling out the forms by hand and mailing them for $0.37 instead. Call me cheap. The IRS has a target of 80% of all taxpayers using e-file in the near future. Does anyone know where the 'free and open' solution is? Do we need to petition the IRS? Currently the IRS seems to be protecting their 'approved e-file partners'' profit margins in the name of a security layer. (I call shenanigans!)" So how will you be doing this year's taxes? I'd settle for a good PDF editor to neatly complete the IRS's PDF forms.
Lots of folks are eligilbe for free filing using web based tools. It was quick and easy for me last year.
h tml
http://www.irs.gov/efile/article/0,,id=118986,00.
All my earnings are reported, all my tax breaks pre-calculculated, interest reported by the banks. Only thing I have to add are tax deductible donations like Red Cross stuff.
Takes me about 15 seconds to do my taxes.
I have NO privacy in my life, but it sure is easy.
Then it's probably a very cosy relationship between the tax accounting software companies and the Inland Revenue Service. They pay ahem ... "subscription charges" for the documentation and specifications, the tax accounting software companies get to call their software "fully IR/IRS compliant".
Is it time to blow the whistle on the scam by asking for specs without the fees? Damn right it is. Will they listen? Not unless you can get some mainstream media behind you.
"It's not your information. It's information about you" - John Ford, Vice President, Equifax
"Why would he install another OS just for taxes?"
Actually he said to install Windows to broaden the availability of software to you. For some strange reason, most of Slashdot doesn't understand the idea that having both Linux and Windows around means you can do more stuff than just having either one of them up and running.
"Derp de derp."
Comment removed based on user account deletion
It may be cheap and easy but it might not make my life easier. Most non free companies have a way of making things miserable for their users and I refuse to fund them.
It was turbo tax's mistaken use of the master boot record for copy protection that put a freeze on any new non free software installation. I don't want tax time to wipe out grub for me. This also rules out using something like crossover office. While it might be easy to repair the damage, I refuse to pay money to be screwed that way or others.
The bottom line is that if I don't trust the bastards with my hardware, why should I trust them with tax records? My bank already sold me out so that my snail mailbox is flooded with Mortage applications. They sent me a form that I have to snail mail back with a signature to opt out of their spam program. What turds. A company that writes out to my MBR is liable to be as fast and lose with my tax information.
My ideology is firmly based in the practical. It does not hurt me to do my taxes by hand and by doing so I avoid many other problems. My avoidance of Windoze has saved me countless hours of upkeep that I used to spend due to bugs, worms and all of it was compounded by stupid shit like the registry. It's problems like this that free software is made to avoid. Non free software is designed to exert control over you and that control almost always spells more hassle than it's worth.
Friends don't help friends install M$ junk.
If you have any kind of home-based business, it's perfectly safe to deduct the cost of a computer through Section 179 of the tax code. (In English, that simply means that you deduct the money you pay for the computer instead of spreading the deduction over your years of ownership, as larger businesses have to do).
If you're doing any form of computer consulting and can book even fairly minimal revenue, the deduction is not generally questioned. Of course if you're working for an employer only you generally can't do it.
Hope that helps. I am not a lawyer or tax advisor; check your tax advisor or book for details, etc.
D
can use the basic 1040 -- don't own a business, take standard deduction
./ is a sizable number of people), you can usually save a ton of money by doing itemized deductions. Of course, it takes time to figure out the itemized deductions.
You should be very careful about using the 1040-EZ form. Unless you are young and don't make much money (which on
Myself, I use a tax accountant to do my taxes (Local shop with a good reputation). We pay her $300, and she typically finds a more then a thousand dollars worth of deductions that we missed when we practiced on our own (even with TurboTax). Student loans, home loan, children, business expenses, professional education, healthcare expenses, donations to the Goodwill, etc. can really add up. Every year the tax rules change, and can't keep up on all the best loopholes.
Plus, she's gives us financial advice. I was employeed for a year, and we ran up too much debt. Last year we consolidated our Credit Card loans & some professional education loans into a Home Equity Line of Credit. Not only are the rates lower (4% vs 15% for the Credit Cards), but our payments are now tax deductable.
Taxes are such a fucking game.
94% of Repubs and 21% of Dems voted to renew the Patriot Act
I don't know if it's related but...
Some years ago Glen Roberts got hold of the IRS' manual for auditors under the FOIA and published it. (At the time he was running a newspaper and selling books, essentially all based on info he got via the FOIA or his experiences in getting it. It included a "how to" manual for using the FOIA.)
The IRS got him enjoined from distributing the auditor's handbook. (And some agency also got him enjoined from distributing the FOIA "how to".)
I think fallout from that episode ended up limiting how much stuff you could get from the IRS under the FOIA.
Bantam Dominique roosters crow a four-note song. Once you've heard it as "Happy BIRTHday" you can't NOT hear it that way
If you understand the tax code thoroughly, you're going to easily know exactly which forms to fill out in a specific year. And you would be an accountant, not a programmer.
I know the tax codes thoroughly, and I'm a professional tax preparer and programmer.
Coincidentally, I don't mean this post to be deragotary towards Open Source people, but am I wrong that no one is going to start a project for code that he himself isn't going to use?
I started one a few years ago, when I had a lot more time on my hands (of course my intention was to be able to use it, but as it turns out I just buy my e-file software for now, it's cheaper than writing the software myself). I abandoned it, largely because I suck at writing GUIs (it was basically my first attempt at using GTK). If a few people want to help me try again, I'm sure we could get something done in time for 2005s taxes (even if it's just the 1040-EZ, it'll generate enough interest to move forward). The specs are out there, but the work is tedious. If you're in, contact me at taxman@inbox.org.
If you are a employee I guess what you say applies quite well here in the U.S. But, for me, as a self-employed businessman with my fingers in numerous pies, my taxes are anything but.
Being in business for myself means there's a qualitative judgement for every expense: is it a "business expense"? I have numerous computers, one of which I spent 4 hours in the past year checking my email. Is the purchase of that computer a business expense?
I travelled to the Bay this year, with my kids, to visit the Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum. During this trip, I met with a potential client. Is this a business trip?
I have many, many times in the past not deducted legitimate business expenses, and purposely paid additional taxes, to "raise" my income in order to qualify for loans when buying property. It's often advantageous to pay a few hundred or thousand to get a property, or qualify for funding for XYZ business loan.
It's a routine - my accountant calls me as soon as he receives our tax stuff for the year and asks me: "More income, or lower taxes?".
Heck, when times were hard, I've even counted borrowed money as income!
I usually have about 100% flexibility - I usually have a 100% range (EG: $75,000 - $150,000 per year) in income I can claim depending on what I decide to call a "business expense".
This year, I'm going for low taxes - my actual income has raised nicely this last year, and I have no particular ambitions to buy real estate. Thus, I want to deduct everything I can think of. I'd write off my kids' allowance this year if my accountant can cook up a justifiable way to do so. Given a simple, written agreement that they sign to "clean Dad's office weekly", I can do so.
If preparing your taxes takes less than a week (by yourself or your book-keeper) you are a wage-slave, and I genuinely feel for you. There's a clear sense of purpose and control when you run your own business - it'd be damn hard to convince me I want a "boss"....
I have no problem with your religion until you decide it's reason to deprive others of the truth.