4 ms·

i commend the effort, but us tax code is insanely complex, and i doubt a weekend's work can make sense of it.

turbohedgehog 11y ago
This is just for a single form, the 1040.
superuser2 11y ago
Most people live in a single state, work a single job, don't itemize deductions, and maybe have a 401k. For them the tax code is actually very simple. It's when you have relationships with multiple states and countries, businesses, complex investments, and sophisticated tax minimization strategies (taking advantage of all the deductions you can find, etc) that things get unwieldy.
- jandrese 11y ago
  A weekenders work can cover probably 80% of the population. This is the bread and butter of places like H&R Block and Turbotax. There's not really much they can do to find deductions, they're little more than middlemen the law requires if you want to e-File.
  - willholloway 11y ago
    You can e-file for free yourself. There are digital versions of forms like the 1040, schedule c etc...
    - jandrese 11y ago
      IIRC you can only e-file for free if you can use a 1040ez, which has some pretty severe limitations. For instance, you can't use it if you're claiming the very common mortgage interest deduction.
      - bzbarsky 11y ago
        https://www.freefilefillableforms.com/ https://www.freefilefillableforms.com/ lets you e-file for free with much less stringent limitations: you have to stick to the forms listed at https://www.freefilefillableforms.com/#/fd/forms.availability https://www.freefilefillableforms.com/#/fd/forms.availabilit... One caveat is that it will not do as much automatic propagation of numbers as it _could_, so you end up having to do some manual work that could be automated away. But it will certainly let you e-file. The second caveat is that this is basically a private organization funded by a consortium of tax-preparation companies, which means that (1) you have to trust them with your tax data (unlike the under-$62k thing that's run directly by the IRS as far as I can tell) and (2) there is zero incentive for this thing to become as good as the for-pay tax preparation software (hence the stupid things that could be automated but aren't).

This is just for a single form, the 1040.

Most people live in a single state, work a single job, don't itemize deductions, and maybe have a 401k. For them the tax code is actually very simple. It's when you have relationships with multiple states and countries, businesses, complex investments, and sophisticated tax minimization strategies (taking advantage of all the deductions you can find, etc) that things get unwieldy.

jandrese 11y ago
A weekenders work can cover probably 80% of the population. This is the bread and butter of places like H&R Block and Turbotax. There's not really much they can do to find deductions, they're little more than middlemen the law requires if you want to e-File.
- willholloway 11y ago
  You can e-file for free yourself. There are digital versions of forms like the 1040, schedule c etc...
  - jandrese 11y ago
    IIRC you can only e-file for free if you can use a 1040ez, which has some pretty severe limitations. For instance, you can't use it if you're claiming the very common mortgage interest deduction.
    - bzbarsky 11y ago
      https://www.freefilefillableforms.com/ https://www.freefilefillableforms.com/ lets you e-file for free with much less stringent limitations: you have to stick to the forms listed at https://www.freefilefillableforms.com/#/fd/forms.availability https://www.freefilefillableforms.com/#/fd/forms.availabilit... One caveat is that it will not do as much automatic propagation of numbers as it _could_, so you end up having to do some manual work that could be automated away. But it will certainly let you e-file. The second caveat is that this is basically a private organization funded by a consortium of tax-preparation companies, which means that (1) you have to trust them with your tax data (unlike the under-$62k thing that's run directly by the IRS as far as I can tell) and (2) there is zero incentive for this thing to become as good as the for-pay tax preparation software (hence the stupid things that could be automated but aren't).