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Show HN: ustaxes.org – open-source tax filing webapp

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Re: Show HN: ustaxes.org – open-source tax filing webapp

#31

Post by eyelidlessness »

m463 wrote: post #17
vages wrote: post #15

Related fun (and sad) fact: In Norway, the tax submission forms are online and so user friendly that you don't need a tax filing program like this. Edit: Here is a link to an explanation for the form, in English, which was revamped in 2020: https://www.skatteetaten.no/en/person/taxes/tax-return/tax-r... The submission form is essentially a wizard that asks you questions related to your situation and your past year. D…

the good reason: some people are philosophically opposed to easy taxes - people should be painfully aware of the money they are giving to the government. (sort of like folks who have VAT complain about advertised US retail prices which don't include tax) The bad reason: Lobbying by intuit and parties to prevent easy tax preparation. Their ROI on regulatory capture is very very good.

> the good reason: some people are philosophically opposed to easy taxes - people should be painfully aware of the money they are giving to the government.

That’s only a good reason if you’re opposed to the actual programs and/or outcomes. If you favor those programs and outcomes, making people “painfully aware” of their cost almost certainly undermines them. Which...

> The bad reason: Lobbying by intuit and parties to prevent easy tax preparation. Their ROI on regulatory capture is very very good.

Tax prep companies certainly don’t have this kind of power, and only one of the parties has that platform. That’s who’s invested in making taxation feel painful. Not just in terms of awareness but in policy too.

Re: Show HN: ustaxes.org – open-source tax filing webapp

#32

Post by aidangrimshaw »

eralps wrote: post #27

This is a cool project. As a user entering information in a pdf file with hundreds of input boxes stresses me. Hiding the document until after I enter all the information makes it easier to file tax. But it would not be feasible to use this for most of the people. Tax is often vastly complex and it ignores all those parts. I don't have any capital gain, any properties or any uncommon income such as from rent but even…

Other types of income are definitely in the works, W2 income was just implemented first because it's the most common and the least complex. Rare types of income like trusts (K9) will probably never be supported though because of the support burden

Re: Show HN: ustaxes.org – open-source tax filing webapp

#33

Post by Hamuko »

bemmu wrote: post #24
llarsson wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In Sweden, the employers are responsible for reporting your income and banks your profits on sales of stocks, funds, and real estate. So "doing your taxes" is, for most people, just logging in and saying "yes" to the computed value. You can even just send a text to do so.

In Finland it's "we think you owe X amount of taxes, if you agree, do nothing".

I wonder how many people actually bother claiming their home office as an expense for 2020. It's pretty easy to do (I did it), but the benefit isn't that massive and inaction is easier than action. The standard flat deduction for "work-related expenses" is 750 euro and you can bump that to 900 euro if you worked remotely for >50% of the year's workdays.

Of course, if you actually incurred more expenses (and kept track), you can claim that, but I have my doubts about most people doing it.

Re: Show HN: ustaxes.org – open-source tax filing webapp

#34

Post by aidangrimshaw »

spankalee wrote: post #23

How would you know that a project like this is computing taxes correctly?

A future improvement I am looking into is adding unit tests for tax calculation. If the project gets popular enough I would probably hire an accountant to verify everything.

Re: Show HN: ustaxes.org – open-source tax filing webapp

#35

Post by kergonath »

wiml wrote: post #8

For the past ~decade I've mostly been using OpenTaxSolver, a file-based open source US tax utility. It's worked for my uses. It'd be appealing to try to factor out the underlying translation of the tax code and IRS form layout into some very simple DSL that could be used by multiple kinds of software.

You might be interested in the French example, if you don’t know already. They designed the Mlang DSL for tax calculation, and released a bunch of things on GitHub.

Here is the compiler: https://hal.inria.fr/hal-03002266v3/document

https://github.com/MLanguage/mlang

They’ve also open sourced an official calculator, along with web APIs: https://github.com/openfisca/openfisca-france

Re: Show HN: ustaxes.org – open-source tax filing webapp

#36

Post by dataking »

llarsson wrote: post #19
vages wrote: post #15

Related fun (and sad) fact: In Norway, the tax submission forms are online and so user friendly that you don't need a tax filing program like this. Edit: Here is a link to an explanation for the form, in English, which was revamped in 2020: https://www.skatteetaten.no/en/person/taxes/tax-return/tax-r... The submission form is essentially a wizard that asks you questions related to your situation and your past year. D…

In Sweden, the employers are responsible for reporting your income and banks your profits on sales of stocks, funds, and real estate. So "doing your taxes" is, for most people, just logging in and saying "yes" to the computed value. You can even just send a text to do so.

To nobody's surprise, this is true in Denmark too.

Re: Show HN: ustaxes.org – open-source tax filing webapp

#37

Post by kilroy123 »

jhabdas wrote: post #10

Suggestion: Add support for Foreign Earned Income Exclusion. If the trend is remote work, focus on the remote workers who would prefer not to pay income taxes.

I disagree and I actually use the Foreign Earned Income Exclusion every year.

My taxes are much more complicated because of this and I think a separate niche tool would be better.

Re: Show HN: ustaxes.org – open-source tax filing webapp

#38

Post by MuffinFlavored »

llarsson wrote: post #19
vages wrote: post #15

Related fun (and sad) fact: In Norway, the tax submission forms are online and so user friendly that you don't need a tax filing program like this. Edit: Here is a link to an explanation for the form, in English, which was revamped in 2020: https://www.skatteetaten.no/en/person/taxes/tax-return/tax-r... The submission form is essentially a wizard that asks you questions related to your situation and your past year. D…

In Sweden, the employers are responsible for reporting your income and banks your profits on sales of stocks, funds, and real estate. So "doing your taxes" is, for most people, just logging in and saying "yes" to the computed value. You can even just send a text to do so.

Is there any good reason this isn't the case in America yet?

Re: Show HN: ustaxes.org – open-source tax filing webapp

#39

Post by Hamuko »

MuffinFlavored wrote: post #38
llarsson wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In Sweden, the employers are responsible for reporting your income and banks your profits on sales of stocks, funds, and real estate. So "doing your taxes" is, for most people, just logging in and saying "yes" to the computed value. You can even just send a text to do so.

Is there any good reason this isn't the case in America yet?

A good reason? No. A reason? Lobbying.
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