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Australia's 'e-tax' Windows Only
Kinky Bass Junk writes "As the need to submit tax returns is looming, notification emails are sent out to users of the tax office's services. This year, the Australia Tax Office (ATO) is using a web-based tax return system, as well as the traditional paper based systems. The e-tax website has all the details, and the requirements of the software stand out: 'e-tax is not compatible with Linux or Apple Macintosh computers. However, if you have suitable Windows Emulator software installed, you may be able to use e-tax.' Here is a protest email I have set up for those who disagree with this."
http://freemm.org/content/view/16/2/
e-tax has been windows only for years. I use a mac and have Virtual PC installed so it works fine. In fact, I think it's the only thing I use Virtual PC for.
You can apparently read the first paragraph of the protest here:
Today I come to you with a sincere request, that should appeal to the self-confessed geeks, and to the socially aware. The Australia Gov't hosts a service known as e-tax to submit your tax return through the Internet, this service has been widely heralded as a success. However, this does not apply to everyone; the educated minority of the Internet world often choose to use alternative operating systems, such as Mac OS or Linux, this software makes claim that you must use an emulator, should you choose to use these OS's. If you know anything about software emulation, you know that it is a difficult task, and one that is preferably avoided. My request is as follows: send an email similar to the one in the furthur text, at the address given, and phone up to register your disgust at this clear favour to global monopolies.
You're assuming people are using copies of Winblows that they've bought ; ) I think it's nice to know that people in Redmond are working on creating good OSes that I .... borrow.
The web based e-tax forms in my country work perfectly with Firefox on Linux. Our neighbours in Germany have a similar problem like the Aussies: The only available free (as in beer) program for their electronic tax forms is for Windows.
Just for fun, I tried running it with the latest CVS of Wine. It installs fine (which is most of the problem with Wine these days.) It also launches fine. I wasn't able to get too far since I don't have an Australian tax ID number, but it was enough to launch the program. The help screens were written using the old MS help system and not the newer CHM, so you can use Wine's internal winhelp viewer to view it all. The controls seem to be pretty old, so I imagine the app runs fine with Wine.
I'd give their website a C- for usability. It seems way too technical for the average user to download the app in the first place. They have 4 links before the app download about patches, the description of which would be meaningless to most users and not obvious that they don't need them.
----- obSig
Do you know how big an idiot I feel? I had problems with mod_rewrite and .htaccess at the worst possible time, but it's all fixed now :)
Sorry again.
Anonymous Coward
* Email the ATO: http://www.ato.gov.au/corporate/content.asp?doc=/c ontent/PA_emailenquiry.html
* Letter Base (the one I used):
I am writing to express my concern over the implementation of "e-tax" in a very specific environment. Your choice to only permit those using Microsoft Windows, or certain emulation software, has placed a disgusting bias over the current market monopolies.
Open Source Software, such as Linux, is attributed with the characteristic of being FREE. To exploit a cliche - free as in speech, as well as free as in beer. By restricting access to only those who can afford Microsoft software, you have placed strains on myself and many others who find themselves liberated of the pressures of proprietry software. I implore you to consider the needs of a wide spectrum of PC users, instead of just those who can afford disgustingly overpriced software, without the need to run _furthur_ software that would likely fail in order to emulate. One possible solution to this is to open the source code up for conversion, and security, by the general population. Either that, or allow a standard protocol for tax returns, so as the general population can code their own software for use with tax returns.
Sincerely Frustrated,
David McKenzie
http://www.freemm.org/
Please note: The contents of this email and any subsequent replies are subject to publishing on mulitple platforms. Please inform me if you do not wish for your replies to be published.
Except that yout friendly neighborhood IRS agent is just as aware of that calculation as you are. So most likely, they won't toss you in prison - they'll simply calculate your taxes and file for you, and then if you owe, they'll place a lien against your property, garnish your wages, or freeze your bank accounts in order to satisfy the debt. Or some combination of the three.
Of course, maybe you don't have any property to seize, bank accounts to raid, or wages to garnish, but in that case, you probably don't really owe much in the way of taxes to begin with, which would make your gesture essentially meaningless - it's posturing without really risking anything.
ABSURDITY, n.: A statement or belief manifestly inconsistent with one's own opinion.
The Brazilian IR has (official) electronic tax returns programs for Windows AND other systems - Linux, Mac, Solaris etc, though for this second group the program is in Java. But better than nothing. Check the link (Disclaimar: Brazilian Portuguese!!!): http://www.receita.fazenda.gov.br/PessoaFisica/IRP F/2005/PGDJAVA/progIRPF2005multiplataforma.htm
But surely you could see many programmers hiding little bugs within the program to make themselves tax free.
What? How? Everyone's tax returns are still processed by the ATO, irrespective of how they're compiled or submitted.
There are so many security risks involved.
There isn't reall. All their e-tax application does is run through a (rather long-winded) set of questions -- exactly the same as what you fill in on paper. It also provides a refund estimate, which it calculates based on the user's input. All of that could be coded by anyone using the paper tax-pack. The only other thing is the actual submission of the completed tax return, which seems to involve a few HTTP requests (enter some details to confirm your identity, get a submission code back, then submit your return using that code) -- and there's no reason that couldn't be open.
For all we know there could be glaring bugs in this software (there was in the version that came out last year) and we'll be unable to fix them before submitting a tax return (meaning we'll be responsible for them).
Not actually true. There is a message at the start advising that as long as the user has supplied accurate info, they won't be held liable for any bugs in the e-Tax software.
Plus, you get to see a preview of your tax return (a filled-in form) which you can print and submit by post, if you don't have regular internet access, or are paranoid about electronic submission.
O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!
actually, it's Win32 application, that then submits the tax return over the internet.
It is _not_ a web interface....
And of course, it's also not the only way to submit taxes, you can still do it the pen and paper way, or see a tax consultant
Advanced users are users too!
you haven't got the slightest idea what you're talking about.
It's not just a form, it's effectively a Tax Wizard, that talks you through the process of doing your tax return, and prevents you from submitting something that doesn't make sense. It also gives you an estimate of your expected return or payement at the end. Whilst it's possible to see the resultant tax form, or work directly on it, there's no need to do so, so a PDF Form would be _more_ difficult to use.
Actually, retard, it's not.
Actually they save money to themselves as they don't need to waste time fucking around with emulators.
I see what you are saying, but it does not have to be Windows-only. It could be a web-based system written to conform to W3C standards, and it would work with any OS that has a conforming browser.
I don't think Australia is doing this with the purpose of "supporting global monopolies", but that is indeed a result of decisions like this. It is perfectly valid to petition the government to make things like this open and cross-platform.
Unfortunately, all your points are invalid because the UK equivalent tax site is and always has been cross-platform...
The Australian e-tax is a Windows application - it is not a website.
Japanese e-Tax http://www.e-tax.nta.go.jp/ which has been around for some time is also Windows only.
You only have time to get a single version of the client ready so which OS do you support first?
All of them, and no, it isn't that hard to make it cross-platform; and yes, i have done it in the real world.
Here in Brazil we have IRPF, which is our e-tax app (written in Java swing), which runs and has been tested on Windows, Linux, Mac, even Solaris. So, if we can do, there's no reason to feel pitty for them.
i gave one uk department a very polite form of hell, and, amazingly, it worked.
.doc format).
i basically explained to them that what they were doing was forcing people to fork out £500 for windows software plus another £500 for a computer capable of _running_ the windows software.
i then liked this into "discrimination", for which they could quite seriously get into trouble.
to their credit, they actually responded, sorted out the web site (and stopped publishing things in