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Open Source Tax Software

ctskennerton.github.io

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Re: Open Source Tax Software

#221

Post by nybble41 »

PaulDavisThe1st wrote: post #195
hahamrfunnyguy wrote: post #137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Couldn't agree more. We need tax reform, not software. The returns should be file automatically, if we disagree we can fill out paperwork with what we should be getting.

Roughly 7% of the US population is self-employed (a little over 10 million people). It's not clear to me what "the returns should be file[d] automatically" means for this group of people. In addition, there are many non-employment based events in the US tax code that change your tax liability. Last year I received a roughly US$3k tax credit because I installed a 6.6kW solar PV array on my house. There are dozens or e…

> It's not clear to me what "the returns should be file[d] automatically" means for [the self-employed].

The employer files the income forms and handles withholding. If you're self-employed, that means you are responsible for that part. And of course anyone with more complex taxes (e.g. non-W2 income) would still need to file, though they could start with the pre-filled forms.

> Last year I received a roughly US$3k tax credit because I installed a 6.6kW solar PV array on my house. There are dozens or even hundreds of cases like this in the US tax code.

Yes, and all those special cases should be removed as part of the reform. If they want to hand out money as an incentive for installing a PV system (for example) then they should make that a separate application and payment, since this has nothing to do with collecting taxes. For business income you can subtract legitimate business expenses (since this is about income, not gross revenues), for capital gains you obviously subtract the cost basis, and for personal income you subtract the official poverty level for your household. (If there are multiple filers for one household then they split the deduction.) If the sum is less than zero then you simply pay no taxes—there are no refunds. That's it. No special surtaxes or exclusions. Apply a flat percentage to the total and you're done.

Re: Open Source Tax Software

#222

Post by Omnitaus »

xyzelement wrote: post #175
thr0wawayf00 wrote: post #160

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's true that tax filing companies lobby to prevent improvements to the tax filing system in the US, but this is also aided by political parties that argue against things like taxation in the first place, which is why there is no bipartisan support to address this issue. Keeping taxes hard to pay is an important carrot in keeping the public mad about having to pay them in the first place. It's governance through dar…

> Keeping taxes hard to pay is an important carrot in keeping the public mad about having to pay them in the first place. It's governance through dark patterns. I am pretty sure the reason most people are mad about having to pay taxes is the thousands/tens of thousands/hundreds of thousands of dollars of their income that is taken from them. On the high level, I always felt fortunate that I was in position to have to…

If they were easy to pay, hard for wealthy taxpayers/corporations to avoid, and actually went to services you'd expect in a developed industrial society (healthcare, education, research) instead of Raytheon XJ-9 Knife Missiles(tm) people might not be so salty about paying the 4th lowest tax rate (as a % of GDP) in the OECD

Put another way, we are at the lowest tax rate this country has seen in a century. How much lower can we expect it to drop?

Re: Open Source Tax Software

#223

Post by PaulDavisThe1st »

nybble41 wrote: post #221
PaulDavisThe1st wrote: post #195

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Roughly 7% of the US population is self-employed (a little over 10 million people). It's not clear to me what "the returns should be file[d] automatically" means for this group of people. In addition, there are many non-employment based events in the US tax code that change your tax liability. Last year I received a roughly US$3k tax credit because I installed a 6.6kW solar PV array on my house. There are dozens or e…

> It's not clear to me what "the returns should be file[d] automatically" means for [the self-employed]. The employer files the income forms and handles withholding. If you're self-employed, that means you are responsible for that part. And of course anyone with more complex taxes (e.g. non-W2 income) would still need to file, though they could start with the pre-filled forms. > Last year I received a roughly US$3k t…

I agree absolutely [0]. This would fundamentally upend American policy making, but that's OK. Our elected representatives would have to decide to actively people money for doing things they want to promote rather, which would improve the transparency of legislative goal setting.

[0] I don't agree about the flat percentage. The USA has had a progressive tax structure in various ways since its founding, and given the concept of marginal utility, I stronly believe that this is the right way to tax income.

Re: Open Source Tax Software

#224

Post by pradn »

javagram wrote: post #187
ghaff wrote: post #168

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So sure. You can write software that can handle a simple Federal-only case. (Basically what used to be a 1040-EZ: W-2(s), a couple 1099s with all the cost basis info existing, standard deductions, etc.) But, at that point, your taxes are pretty simple to fill out anyway and I'm guessing there are even spreadsheet templates out there that let you type in some numbers and everything is calculated.

Moreover, the simple cases are also supported by the IRS free fillable forms product. https://www.freefilefillableforms.com/

The IRS could not come up with a website and TLD that sounds more like a scam if they tried. :)

Re: Open Source Tax Software

#225

Post by mro_name »

aorth wrote: post #135
mro_name wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

did you contact them on that? What does an email prove anyway?

Ah, I just checked my records. I contacted them in 2021-02. Their response was: > We prefer customers to attach email addresses from widely recognized providers for security purposes. Additionally, our servers have a hard time communicating with private email servers. > You may create a new email address to handle your tax returns through FreeTaxUSA with a major provider.

thanks for asking them – it's really important to give feedback. Otherwise they just continue to not know.

Re: Open Source Tax Software

#226

Post by PaulDavisThe1st »

gorbachev wrote: post #194
joshuaheard wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I build a spread sheet for all the forms and worksheets that require calculations. FreeFillableForms does some of the calculations for you, and does not have any worksheets. Excel has formulas for everything I have encountered paying taxes, and I have a joint account with stock options and several rental property LLCs. As a bonus, the spreadsheets are generally reusable, after checking to make sure there are no chang…

FreeFillableForms is great and has saved me a ton of time, but it does not do the calculations automatically for every field. You still have to manually lookup certain things from tables. It's freakin' frustrating, because there's no reason why it couldn't automate those as well.

Even more frustrating because it doesn't tell you that you haven't done the calculation or worse, you haven't transferred a field from one form to another.

I failed to copy my self-employment tax back to my 1040 for 2020, despite having calculated it correctly. No warnings, the form filing went smoothly, and 4 months later I got a notice from the IRS.

It's insanity.

Re: Open Source Tax Software

#227

Post by shireboy »

xivzgrev wrote: post #19

I worked on tax software and have seen these kind of efforts. Noble, yes. Short lived, yes. It’s relatively easy to make a free 1040 file. The real problem comes from all. The. Edge. Cases. 1) do you support xyz state? 2) what if I lived in multiple states? 3) what if i… And on and on. And it’s not just one and done. Every year IRS and states are changing their shit so you have to go thru and make all kind of updates…

Came here to say this, except the real fix is to simplify the tax code. It’s like app dev - over the years has built up lots of bloat, some due to legit social interests, some due to back room shenanigans with special interests. Needs an overhaul and mass simplification, but pointy haired ones not willing to take on the project.

Re: Open Source Tax Software

#228

Post by tldrthelaw »

Tax attorney here, these are great resources and should be encouraged. A lot of folks (looking at you, Intuit) spend a lot of money to make a lot more keeping a lock on the market.

These kinds of initiatives don't get everyone all the way there (see: other comments about edge cases) but they can go a long way towards educating folks about what filing looks like -- and at least some of them will give it a go themselves.

tldr: good post

Re: Open Source Tax Software

#229

Post by jeffdn »

triceratops wrote: post #209
koheripbal wrote: post #150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

France has no State/Provincial level taxes. They also do not tax global income. These add major complexities to the US tax code.

The US could stop taxing global income for individuals. US companies don't have to pay taxes on their overseas profits, why do people?

US companies do have to pay taxes on overseas profits, which is why they so often have subsidiaries based overseas. Those entities do not have to pay those taxes.

Re: Open Source Tax Software

#230

Post by runarberg »

xyzelement wrote: post #175
thr0wawayf00 wrote: post #160

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's true that tax filing companies lobby to prevent improvements to the tax filing system in the US, but this is also aided by political parties that argue against things like taxation in the first place, which is why there is no bipartisan support to address this issue. Keeping taxes hard to pay is an important carrot in keeping the public mad about having to pay them in the first place. It's governance through dar…

> Keeping taxes hard to pay is an important carrot in keeping the public mad about having to pay them in the first place. It's governance through dark patterns. I am pretty sure the reason most people are mad about having to pay taxes is the thousands/tens of thousands/hundreds of thousands of dollars of their income that is taken from them. On the high level, I always felt fortunate that I was in position to have to…

> I am pretty sure the reason most people are mad about having to pay taxes is the thousands/tens of thousands/hundreds of thousands of dollars of their income that is taken from them.

Perhaps this depends. In the USA, perhaps. In Iceland, not so much (https://twitter.com/iamharaldur/status/1355490017288867841).

In the USA you have to pay your taxes and then you have to pay for your public insurances, where in most of Europe these are the same things. And perhaps tax payers in the USA are not happy with this. So to amend your statement, perhaps a more accurate one is: Most people are mad about paying taxes because of the thousands of dollars of income that is taken from them without any tangible benefits.

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