greentrust

Creating a free, open source alternative to TurboTax, H&R, etc seems like a noble pursuit that could benefit tens of millions of people. Ideally governments would offer their own free tax filing solution for citizens, but apparently this has been blocked by lobbying [1]. There is also truth to the idea that the governments may have a conflict of interest, making you pay more taxes than necessary. In the meantime, companies like Intuit continue to profit off something that should be totally free and simple.

Such a project would be an enormous and complicated undertaking. The US federal tax code is huge, and all 50 states have their own code. These laws change every year. Audit liability is a concern (even if you add a TOS/disclaimer). Advisory from CPAs would likely be necessary. Supporting eFile requires IRS approval [2]. For these reasons it might make sense for it to be backed by a non-profit organization with clear governance.

There is prior work in this area – like OpenTaxSolver [3] – but these projects are outdated, have archaic GUIs, and lack the infrastructure+community to reach scale. A newer project could utilize the latest tech and all the great resources available for open source communities. A first iteration could just handle US federal taxes and possibly require forms to be printed & mailed to reduce complexity.

HN Community – Do you think such an initiative is feasible and worthwhile? What hurdles would you anticipate?

Also, if anyone is seriously interested in exploring this idea further (even just part-time), fill out this google form and I can try to create a mailing list or community to collectively push it forward: https://forms.gle/ejwjrZKe3WT6pbzE7

[1] https://www.propublica.org/article/inside-turbotax-20-year-fight-to-stop-americans-from-filing-their-taxes-for-free

[2] https://www.irs.gov/e-file-providers/become-an-authorized-e-file-provider

[3] http://opentaxsolver.sourceforge.net/index.html