6 ms·

What's the biggest blocker to making an OSS GPL tax prep software for the US market ?

Ididntdothis 7y ago
The tax code with federal, state and so on is extremely complex and you also have a hard deadline every year . Hard to do this with volunteers. The IRS already has an implementation of the tax code. It would be great if they open sourced it as public service.
jedberg 7y ago
The tax code is very complex. It takes a legion of programmers (most of whom also have tax accounting and/or tax law training) just to translate the tax code into computer code. You're unlikely to find enough volunteers to maintain that. Also, TurboTax is an entity you can sue if they get it wrong and you get audited because of the error. An OSS project would be a magic black box. I wouldn't use an OSS tax prep software because I have no way of knowing if it's correct, nor is there anyone to take responsibility if it isn't.
- selimthegrim 7y ago
  Apparently the IRS was almost done finishing the mainframe to Java conversion of one of their modules and the programmer’s (a PRC national) contract which his visa was tied to expired
  - iudqnolq 7y ago
    That sounds fascinating. Do you have a link or some more specific keywords I could search? I would like to learn more about that.
    - bobbiechen 7y ago
      Looks like this is the story [1], though it seems the reason is actually some kind of funding-related issue: Wang was working under streamlined critical pay authority the agency has had since its landmark 1998 restructuring. It gave the IRS 40 slots under which it could pay temporary, full-time employees higher than GS rates. Former Commissioner John Koskinen pointed out Congress did not re-up this authority in 2013, despite his entreaties to former Congressman Jason Chaffetz’s Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. “The last one ran out this past summer,” Koskinen said. The departures included Wang. He says he applied to become a GS-15 or Senior Executive Service member so he could see through the assembler-to-Java project. But his approval didn’t come through until a week before his employment authority expired. By then he’d accepted another job. Wang says he had a house to pay for, kids to educate. Koskinen confirms the agency wanted to convert Wang. But the process of approval from Treasury headquarters and the Office of Personnel Management simply took too long. And here's a follow-up from this year [2] which also describes the patent that came out of that work [3]. [1] https://federalnewsnetwork.com/tom-temin-commentary/2018/01/irs-clutches-its-modernization-holy-grail/ https://federalnewsnetwork.com/tom-temin-commentary/2018/01/... [2] https://federalnewsnetwork.com/tom-temin-commentary/2020/01/irs-programming-mystery-continues/ https://federalnewsnetwork.com/tom-temin-commentary/2020/01/... [3] https://federalnewsnetwork.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/IRS-patent-10_2019.pdf https://federalnewsnetwork.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/IR...
      - selimthegrim 7y ago
        Yes, this was it, sorry if I misremembered a few details
      - iudqnolq 7y ago
        Thank you
- BlueTemplar 7y ago
  Now I'm wondering about UK's tax, which is supposedly even more complex than that, considering the insane accountant per person ratio?
stirbot 7y ago
A lack of machine readable tax code.

The tax code with federal, state and so on is extremely complex and you also have a hard deadline every year . Hard to do this with volunteers. The IRS already has an implementation of the tax code. It would be great if they open sourced it as public service.

jedberg 7y ago

The tax code is very complex. It takes a legion of programmers (most of whom also have tax accounting and/or tax law training) just to translate the tax code into computer code. You're unlikely to find enough volunteers to maintain that. Also, TurboTax is an entity you can sue if they get it wrong and you get audited because of the error. An OSS project would be a magic black box. I wouldn't use an OSS tax prep software because I have no way of knowing if it's correct, nor is there anyone to take responsibility if it isn't.

selimthegrim 7y ago
Apparently the IRS was almost done finishing the mainframe to Java conversion of one of their modules and the programmer’s (a PRC national) contract which his visa was tied to expired
- iudqnolq 7y ago
  That sounds fascinating. Do you have a link or some more specific keywords I could search? I would like to learn more about that.
  - bobbiechen 7y ago
    Looks like this is the story [1], though it seems the reason is actually some kind of funding-related issue: Wang was working under streamlined critical pay authority the agency has had since its landmark 1998 restructuring. It gave the IRS 40 slots under which it could pay temporary, full-time employees higher than GS rates. Former Commissioner John Koskinen pointed out Congress did not re-up this authority in 2013, despite his entreaties to former Congressman Jason Chaffetz’s Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. “The last one ran out this past summer,” Koskinen said. The departures included Wang. He says he applied to become a GS-15 or Senior Executive Service member so he could see through the assembler-to-Java project. But his approval didn’t come through until a week before his employment authority expired. By then he’d accepted another job. Wang says he had a house to pay for, kids to educate. Koskinen confirms the agency wanted to convert Wang. But the process of approval from Treasury headquarters and the Office of Personnel Management simply took too long. And here's a follow-up from this year [2] which also describes the patent that came out of that work [3]. [1] https://federalnewsnetwork.com/tom-temin-commentary/2018/01/irs-clutches-its-modernization-holy-grail/ https://federalnewsnetwork.com/tom-temin-commentary/2018/01/... [2] https://federalnewsnetwork.com/tom-temin-commentary/2020/01/irs-programming-mystery-continues/ https://federalnewsnetwork.com/tom-temin-commentary/2020/01/... [3] https://federalnewsnetwork.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/IRS-patent-10_2019.pdf https://federalnewsnetwork.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/IR...
    - selimthegrim 7y ago
      Yes, this was it, sorry if I misremembered a few details
    - iudqnolq 7y ago
      Thank you
BlueTemplar 7y ago
Now I'm wondering about UK's tax, which is supposedly even more complex than that, considering the insane accountant per person ratio?

stirbot 7y ago

A lack of machine readable tax code.