IRS Makes Direct File Software Open Source After Trump Tried to Kill It
IRS Makes Direct File Software Open Source After Trump Tried to Kill It
gizmodo.com
IRS Makes Direct File Software Open Source After Trump Tried to Kill It
16 comments
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Excited to see forks for this. Wonder if each state could tailor it but not sure how complex it would be unfortunately.
TurboTax is a parasite to simple filing
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Yes! The government should be required to have an electronic way to file your taxes for free. If people want to pay a tax preparing service, that’s fine, but a free option should be required by law. You shouldn’t have to pay your taxes and pay someone to submit them. Private companies clearly can’t be trusted with the free side, because they degrade it to try to upsell.
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Real problem is that the rules change every year so the software has to be constantly updated and that sometimes requires insider information about what changes are coming. Often the IRS publications aren't available until the last minute or later, definitely not in enough time for proper quality processes. So, while simple returns can sometimes be done with software like this, a lot of people rely on the software or agencies to know all the new rules.
That being said, I would like it a lot if there was a way to file very single form, but fill it out manually in the software, without calculations being done by the software. At least then you could file electronically regardless of what complex forms you need to file with complex worksheets and sub-forms, if the software didn't need to know about those things, just the forms you actually file. As it is, the only way to file these is with expensive software or on paper which can take many months for the IRS to process and you could be on the hook for interest if you file something wrong and the IRS doesn't reject in time for you to correct it and resubmit before interest charges accrue.
Also, a lot of IRS processes require the software to be certified (or at least did the last time I looked at it) because their software isn't sophisticated enough to validate the complex forms, so getting that certification might be difficult for FOSS software. I'll be interested to see how that plays out.
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What's the license?
Edit: Ugh, it's licensed CC0 public domain. Assholes.
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IIRC all US government projects HAVE to be CC0 if released to the public. I think the idea is it was created with public money so there shouldn't be any restrictions on how the public can use it.
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That was before copyleft was a thing. Many European governments are now requiring tax funded software to be copyleft.
There are exceptions to that law, such as the USPS. Sounds like we need to contact our legislators to get the law updated
Licensing CC0 is just subsidizing corporations at the expense of tax payers. It should be copyleft because it was funded publicly
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What's wrong with CC0?
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It means that any company can take that code, modify it (as would be required every year per IRS tax changes), and resell it without being required to publish the source code changes.
What many European countries are doing is requiring the government to publish code under a copyleft license. That would allow companies to also benefit from this code to make their own tools (which they could also sell), and it would require them to publish the source code of their improvements.
Basically copyleft legally ensures collaboration. Public domain does not.
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I want to think here that this is more about not knowing about licenses than malice.
They did open it.
If open source developers can now keep the tax code updated, you're all golden
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Well that's a plot twist
16 comments