[Discuss] Finance software for Linux

[bogstad at pobox.com (Bill Bogstad)]

On Wed, Jan 14, 2015 at 2:26 PM, Matthew Gillen <me at mattgillen.net> wrote:
> On 1/14/2015 8:05 AM, Jerry Feldman wrote:
>> Unfortunately there are only a few companies in the industry who
>> produce tax software, and they only Windows and Mac compatible, or
>> you can use the web interfaces. This type of software does not really
>> lend itself to to Open Source.
>
> Why do you say that?  Because it requires a lot of specialized knowledge
> that typical CS majors don't have?  There are certain projects in the
> open source world that have to pay attention to regulatory issues (e.g.
> wireless drivers), and they seem to be able to do so.
>
> I suppose the tax code is orders of magnitude more complex and
> intertwined.  I'd be curious to explore your statement a little more
> though regarding what kinds of things lend themselves to open source.

It isn't just the complexity.   It is the constant churn.  Sometimes
because of last minute
changes from Congress, the IRS doesn't put out final
instructions/forms until late Fall.
Admittedly these are usually fairly esoteric issues, but as lots of
people have something odd about their taxes (uninsured medical
expenses, loss due to theft/fire, consulting income, etc., etc.); any
organization putting out tax software has to be prepared to put
out a new version fairly quickly.   Plus the software is
geographically restricted.   US Federal tax software might be
adaptable to state level returns; but probably won't be at
all useful for UK or Canadian taxes.   This just doesn't strike me as
a problem domain that
is very tractable to volunteer efforts.  It is also (to a great
extent) an all or nothing problem for most users.   If tax software
only handles 2 of the 3 forms that I need to fill out, it probably
isn't worth my time to use it.  I'm not aware of any other free
software (or culture i.e. wikipedia) which operates under these
conditions.

Bill Bogstad