Oh, I don't know, if the data-structure was easy to understand (and contribute to) it might be fun to have a comprehensive representation of the tax code to play with. It's also a problem that lends itself to "local first" attempts - I can see an individual might try to encode rules about their local sales tax and property taxes.
Another approach would be to have a programming competition to see who can write the best in-browser, privacy respecting 2022 1040EZ application using nothing but html, css, svg, and javascript[0]. The end product should be capable of saving its state as a single json object, and producing a usable PDF. One might host such an application as a public utility. A good test suite would model the 1040 historically to make sure the app can reach all states characteristic of the problem, and produce the correct result. On macos you might want to bundle it all in an app, include Chrome, the resources, the data and any generated PDFs.
This would be relatively low-effort and could have real impact on, e.g., TurboTax. Heck, I'd use it. I bet a lot of people here would. Here (https://github.com/b-k/1040.js) is one person who took a serious stab at a part of this, the calculations themselves!
It's sales and value added taxes that are the issue. Some places are really easy, others are difficult, the rules depend on your location, your business other potential nexuses, and the location of the customer. Once collected, the taxes must be remitted properly before the due date. You may need a tax account for every nexus. To submit the returns electronically either requires scraping websites or convincing the government to let you send them another kind of method, perhaps using EDI formats or their own XML or other weird formats.
Agreed. I live in Washington DC. Generally, our tax code tries to push more of the burden on to tourists and less on average residents, with business interests falling somewhere in the middle. How we do that gets really complicated.
1040s are much simpler than other taxes. Let's look at sales tax. Imagine you stop by my corner store and pick up a can of Coke, a bottle of beer, a pack of tampons, and a pair of gloves. The respective tax rates will be 8%, 10.25%, 0%, and 6%.
Another approach would be to have a programming competition to see who can write the best in-browser, privacy respecting 2022 1040EZ application using nothing but html, css, svg, and javascript[0]. The end product should be capable of saving its state as a single json object, and producing a usable PDF. One might host such an application as a public utility. A good test suite would model the 1040 historically to make sure the app can reach all states characteristic of the problem, and produce the correct result. On macos you might want to bundle it all in an app, include Chrome, the resources, the data and any generated PDFs.
This would be relatively low-effort and could have real impact on, e.g., TurboTax. Heck, I'd use it. I bet a lot of people here would. Here (https://github.com/b-k/1040.js) is one person who took a serious stab at a part of this, the calculations themselves!
0 - Someone is also taking a stab at this: https://github.com/Free1040/Free1040