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I am a CPA by profession in the U.S. I have done income taxes for others for many years. I have prepared returns manually and with commercial tax prep software--most of the consumer level versions are disgustingly tedious and I don't like. I also don't like the annual fees these packages enforce--I'm cheap, what can I say. The open source software development model seems like it should be applied to this problem. I am also a software developer--but mostly on enterprise apps. But, I'd like to tackle the tax preparation software problem using Revolution and the OSS model. Anyone else interested in this? It is a bit of niche area; but the nice thing is that the requirements--what the app should do--are nicely spelled out compliments of the IRS. As a matter of fact, experience tells me that if we do well enough, they'll lend support. Okay, so that's not a big attraction, but it is an interesting challenge if you are like me and enjoy both accounting/tax and software development. What do you think?

I've begun developing some basic code to start formulating some design standards for the project. I readily admit I'm not a great developer, but I have plenty of subject matter expertise on the topic of income taxes and I'd love to make a useful tool available to the masses via the OSS model.

Here are some high level requirements that I think would be necessary for a tax preparation package. These are designed to meet my needs--someone who is familiar with the tax preparation process, isn't necessarily interested in hand-holding on each line with supporting law references (I know how to find those myself thank you), and is primarily interested in having a tool that will provide the foundation for a stand-alone or one-person tax preparation consulting service. It could be used by individuals who aren't into doing lots of tax returns, but for now my focus is on someone who knows that they are doing.

Here is my list (so far):

Basic functionality of tax preparation software

1. Prepare US individual income tax form, Form 1040, to calculate taxes owed/refund due based upon filing status, exemptions, income and deductions, (both from direct user input and supporting tax schedules and forms) and payments/credits

2. Automatically recalculate affected worksheets, forms and schedules when related values in other worksheets, forms or schedules are changed because of modifications to values in those documents by the user

3. Include appropriate tax schedules, forms and worksheets to support all entries on form 1040

4. save data entered in a session for future sessions; allow the user to create tax returns for multiple tax payers by saving data entered for one tax payer and then resetting the tax forms, schedules and worksheets in preparation for a new taxpayer’s data

5. file form 1040 for the named individual(s) via IRS electronic filing (this is a BIG deal and will take significant effort to first complete application process with IRS, then satisfy IRS testing requirements, and finally comply with IRS administrative procedures).

6. print form 1040 and supporting schedules, forms, and worksheets for a hardcopy record of filing—or automatically create equivalent PDFs of the forms, schedules and worksheets.

7. Automatically fill in the appropriate values from other worksheets, schedules and tax forms in the currently active worksheet, schedule or form so that the user only has to enter data that is unique to the current document (rather than re-enter data already found on another form).

8. Provide tips on each line item to help user understand what value is to be entered; reference supporting worksheets the user could use to prepare the final entry that would go into a line item’s value field.

9. Support running on Mac OS X, Windows XP (at least), Linux

10. Where required on the forms or schedules automatically included preparer information from a configurable set of variables stored with the program (rather than stored with each tax form).