Tax software (was Re: my answers to questions)
On Mar 06, Bdale Garbee wrote:
> It's less clear to me that there will ever be an Open Source tax preparation
> program that can handle my needs. Our tax codes are ridiculously complex
> and change every year... and my tax situation is complicated. Given the cost
> and complexity of working with a professional tax preparer, and the potential
> cost of a calculation failure if it results in an IRS audit, I'm willing to
> continue paying a modest amount for a proprietary program to perform this
> function every year. It would be nicer if there were one that ran on Linux,
> of course...
The problem with an OS tax prep program is that I suspect that the "no
warranty" bit in the license would not always be interpreted as
literally meaning "no warranty", particularly if you encountered an
overly populist judge or jury. If that problem were overcome (can it
really be?), I can easily see a DFSG-free tax prep program with the
author selling support - namely, insurance that the program is
audit-proof.
FWIW, my taxes are also a mess and I use proprietary software to do
them, mainly because I'd otherwise be paying someone else more money
to use proprietary software to do them for me. OTOH, a program that
will calculate 1040EZ (which isn't easy to screw up, since the form
and instructions are aimed at or below the 6th grade reading level)
might be a worthwhile project... and if it were built extensibly, it
might eventually be useful for 1040A at least. Frankly there are
parts of 1040 that even the tax prep companies are afraid to touch...
(I do use Gnucash though... it seems very capable, at least for what I
need it to do - keeping my checking account balance above zero.)
Chris
--
Chris Lawrence <lawrencc@debian.org> - http://www.lordsutch.com/chris/
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