Tax software under Linux

[sweetser at TheWorld.com (sweetser at TheWorld.com)]

Hello:

Let me second Bruce Davis' suggestion about free services listed off the
IRS web site.  Five years ago, I was a Turbo Tax fan.  Pay the discounted
rate for the CD at Staples, install, then let the software ask you
questions and put all the numbers in place.  It looked like a great
business model because every year required new software.

Two years ago, the Turbo Tax people got together with Yahoo, so
tax.yahoo.com (something like that), allowed you to fill it all in for
free, then charged for filing.  It clearly was the same thing as available
on CD, only web based.  I went through all the steps, printed it out, then
filled in the paper forms.

This year when I got the forms, the IRS said they would provide a list of
web based tax programs, many of them for free.  It looked like I qualified
for a free filing from several companies (unemployment does that).  I
chose
taxslayer.com for no particular reason.  Still, their software worked
great.  It also did the state taxes.  Both were filed electronically.  The
pdf printout looks professional.

There was such a long list of online services, I do think this sort of
thing will be available for years to come.  If you know how to prepare for
a Turbo Tax session, the web based ones should also work.

doug