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Who wants to just start writing a free version and start putting them out of business? Filing taxes is not the Linux kernel, I mean how complicated is it really

Who wants to just start writing a free version and start putting them out of business? Filing taxes is not the Linux kernel, I mean how complicated is it really? It's still just a matter of following directions and doing basic math. Computers are great at that. No rocket science needed. I even thought of a name: Caesar (as in "render unto..."). Caesar.org is available. At the end it generates a PDF for printing & mailing. After the first x users we lobby for our own connection to the IRS system like those companies have.

atonse 8y ago
It's not hard. It's all arithmetic. Before people pounce on me for "trivializing it" – I've written, from scratch, Obamacare Insurance calculators that analyzed hundreds of policies with various coverages, coverage tiers, and you could type in things like "If i broke my leg on this policy, how much would it cost?" (all in real-time). It was a lot of arithmetic but really not that bad (about 150-200 lines of mainly applying coefficients to standard formulas depending on your policy tier), but it was all addition, multiplication, and division. And it really wasn't that bad. Took about 2 weeks. Update: Just to clarify, an analyst had already done all the legwork of collecting those coefficients and premiums and costs for me. But all I'm saying is that the actual formulas are never that crazy. I've also written similar calculators for life insurance and travel insurance. I really doubt the tax calculations are any different. Ultimately you gotta remember that these laws are made by pretty average humans and have to be enforced by those same average humans. They're going to be vast, but any single rule won't be mathematically complex.
- jason_slack 8y ago
  So I once worked for a company writing math calcs all day everyday for various things (real estate, insurance, algo trading, school district budgets, hazards). If you would be willing to talk more about this email in my profile. I’ve often thought about the tax sector and how to make it easier. I really like the idea of a “Robinhood” for taxes. So to speak.
saagarjha 8y ago
I feel like this might open up liability, or at least substantial "badwill" if the software messes something up?
colejohnson66 8y ago
> Who wants to just start writing a free version and start putting them out of business? CreditKarma is trying it seems

atonse 8y ago

It's not hard. It's all arithmetic. Before people pounce on me for "trivializing it" – I've written, from scratch, Obamacare Insurance calculators that analyzed hundreds of policies with various coverages, coverage tiers, and you could type in things like "If i broke my leg on this policy, how much would it cost?" (all in real-time). It was a lot of arithmetic but really not that bad (about 150-200 lines of mainly applying coefficients to standard formulas depending on your policy tier), but it was all addition, multiplication, and division. And it really wasn't that bad. Took about 2 weeks. Update: Just to clarify, an analyst had already done all the legwork of collecting those coefficients and premiums and costs for me. But all I'm saying is that the actual formulas are never that crazy. I've also written similar calculators for life insurance and travel insurance. I really doubt the tax calculations are any different. Ultimately you gotta remember that these laws are made by pretty average humans and have to be enforced by those same average humans. They're going to be vast, but any single rule won't be mathematically complex.

jason_slack 8y ago
So I once worked for a company writing math calcs all day everyday for various things (real estate, insurance, algo trading, school district budgets, hazards). If you would be willing to talk more about this email in my profile. I’ve often thought about the tax sector and how to make it easier. I really like the idea of a “Robinhood” for taxes. So to speak.

saagarjha 8y ago

I feel like this might open up liability, or at least substantial "badwill" if the software messes something up?

colejohnson66 8y ago

> Who wants to just start writing a free version and start putting them out of business? CreditKarma is trying it seems