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I don't mind the idea of figuring my own taxes, after all I can lookup all the numbers pretty easily, but the main obstacle to that is the tax instructions are

I don't mind the idea of figuring my own taxes, after all I can lookup all the numbers pretty easily, but the main obstacle to that is the tax instructions are impossible to parse. We should require the IRS to release the tax forms in a machine-readable format, e.g., as open-source software. The human-readable instructions should merely be the spec. Other people can write nice interfaces on top of that. Then you can run the code on your phone to figure your taxes.

msound 10y ago
In India, our income tax department accepts returns as an XML document, and tax prep software developers have built tools that basically help you generate the XML and upload it to the e-filing website. PDF Link: https://incometaxindiaefiling.gov.in/eFiling/Portal/StaticPDF/Schema_Document.pdf https://incometaxindiaefiling.gov.in/eFiling/Portal/StaticPD... Other than this, the government run e-filing website also has a nice interface to do your taxes. It's fairly simple. Just fill in numbers and click Next Next Next Submit, and you're done.