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Ask HN: Are there any good open source tax software projects?
- tothrowaway 6y agoIf a rich person shorts Intuit stock, spend $5-10 million developing a really slick tax program, and releases it for free, could they break even? They could make it a charity, and the $5-10 million would be tax deductible on top of it. At that point, maybe Intuit wouldn't have the motivation to keep the tax code complicated. Then we could move to a simplified system at the speed of congress.
- giantg2 6y agoI think the sticking point is that during that transition you have to have people to release the constant updates that currently happen. Maybe they can be volunteers, but maybe not.
- ghgdynb1 6y agoIf there aren’t any such projects, now might be a great time to start. Prior to reading ProPublica’s exemplary reporting, I had no idea how truly duplicitous some of the market leaders can be. https://www.propublica.org/article/inside-turbotax-20-year-fight-to-stop-americans-from-filing-their-taxes-for-free https://www.propublica.org/article/inside-turbotax-20-year-f...