jsaponara / opentaxforms Goto Github PK

The TravisCI config still only lists Python 2.7, so it's not running the Python 3 test environment.

I'm not very familiar with tox and how it manages these things, so I'll leave the fix to someone else.

This would be useful, especially for non-residents that have to file a few forms a year (after they've become non-residents of Canada). Unlike the US, Canadians do not file "regular" taxes but file S216 and related forms every year if they have a home they're renting out. I imagine, providing the ability to file NR6 (non-resident forms), Statement of Rent Income, and Section 216 Taxes would be very useful for many Canadians living in the US.

This project is awesome!

I started fixing things for the 2017 1040 in my repo: https://github.com/tannewt/opentaxforms

Looks like we may need to tune the pdf extraction so that it chunks text a bit more. Some of the form references are looking in in long blocks like:

if: if your spouse itemizes on a separate return or you were a dual-status alien,  check here 
▶itemized deductions (from schedule a) or your standard deduction (see left margin) subtract line 
40 from line 38 .exemptions. if line 38 is $156,900 or less, multiply $4,050 by the number on line 
6d. otherwise, see instructionstaxable income.  subtract line 42 from line 41. if line 42 is more than 
line 41, enter -0- tax  (see instructions). check if any from: a alternative minimum tax  (see 
instructions). attach form 6251 ...excess advance premium tax credit repayment. attach form 8962 
.add lines 44, 45, and 46 ..48 foreign tax credit. attach form 1116 if required .49 credit for child and 
dependent care expenses. attach form 2441 50 education credits from form 8863, line 19 51 
retirement savings contributions credit. attach form 8880 52 child tax credit. attach schedule 8812, 
if required.53residential energy credit. attach form 5695..8801 54other credits from form: a add 
lines 48 through 54. these are your total credits ....subtract line 55 from line 47. if line 55 is more 
than line 47, enter -0- ..self-employment tax. attach schedule se ..unreported social security and 
medicare tax from form: a 8919 4137 additional tax on iras, other qualified retirement plans, etc. 
attach form 5329 if required ...

I'd love to see this become an Electron app with the IRS forms side-by-side with the instructions.

In principle, it has been possible for several years to get a "transcript" of basically everything the IRS knows (that is, has received electronically) about your tax info.

In practice, this seems to have been created mostly for the convenience of tax preparation professionals; but, having created the system, the IRS apparently felt they had to make it at least possible for the taxpayer to get their own information. But it was so painful (IRS invented its own security protocols, like checking whether an address you provided matched something they could download from EquiFax) that nobody did it.

Since last year (I don't know exactly when), they have modernized the system. Not only have they moved to standard 2fa authentication methods, but they have made the resulting documents xhtml rather than (bitmapped) PDFs -- so now it should be possible for someone ambitious to use standard python tools to calculate your taxes for you; without the pain of TurboTax and its competitors.

Maybe this will (finally) get the US to a point where you can feed your tax info (downloaded directly from the IRS) into an open-source package that will calculate your taxes for you (up to the same degree of accuracy the IRS can obtain, because you have the same info that they do).

change the one template in this project (opentaxforms/template/form.html) to use a real templating system, eg jinja2 , rather than my homebrewed templating.