Tax Preparation with WINE

[Martin Gregorie]

On Mon, 2009-03-30 at 21:38 -0500, Chard wrote:

I have contacted TAX ACT in order to remind them that the American
Linux Community is in need of tax software which can successfully
install and operate under WINE and that the company could gain market
share by tweaking its products so that they appeal to the
self-preparing tax filers opting for a non-Windows Operating System
(No tax support for Mac either as far as I know).

The mystery to me is why they don't simply write tax software in Java.
That way the same program would run on Linux, OS X and Windows. As a
bonus its download and installation could be completely automated with
JWS (Java Web Start).

BTW, you may be interested to know that in the UK online tax filings are
done using a standard AJAX stack with SSL encryption. I did last years'
filing using Firefox on Linux with no problems at all.

Martin

[Evil Jay]

Chard wrote:

"You're nervous about charging something online and here you are putting all your tax information online on somebody else's Web site.

You mean like you do when you e-file? Unless you do everything by mail,
you're doing that anyway.

Compromise of electronic systems/transfers is hardly a drop in the
bucket in the 10 million or so other identity thefts each year... the
majority of which occur via stolen mail.

When it comes to electronic theft of your income tax data, it's much
more likely to occur via loss of backup tapes or hard drives at the
agencies, *after* they've put your paper info into their system.

I did some research, but I've found no occurrences of anyone's
information being stolen while using any of these web-based tax systems,
so they actually seem as safe as using local software and e-filing...
and more safe than using local software and mailing the forms.

-J

[Chard]

A review of A CHRONOLOGY OF DATA BREACHES 2005 - 2009 at http://www.scribd.com/doc/12576171/A-Ch ... -2005-2009
will give any neutral observer pause. For example, in April 2007, using an online tax service, a Nebraska woman discovered that she was able to access the tax returns of other filers in different parts of the USA. Fortunately, she had no malicious intent and promptly reported the breach.

Surely, to mangle Voltaire's famous line, one does not want protection to be the enemy of good, but (for me) online data protection is not yet good enough. Pax, ~rc

[James Mckenzie]

Chard <[email protected]> wrote on March 30th:

I have contacted TAX ACT in order to remind them that the American Linux Community is in need of tax software which can successfully install and operate under WINE and that the company could gain market share by tweaking its products so that they appeal to the self-preparing tax filers opting for a non-Windows Operating System (No tax support for Mac either – as far as I know).

TaxACT does exist for the Mac as well as Intuit's tax preparation software, TaxCut. I've been using the Intuit product for the last few years.

While the purveyors of on-line tax preparation claim that their services are secure, I am not yet
comfortable in entering all my financial data, as well as my SS number and other personally
identifiable information, onto some distant commercially-operated server, where it may be retained
for years. Perhaps I have listened to Todd Davis's ad too often, but it seems that compromise of
electronic data transfer and storage is not rare. "Think about it sweetheart," says Eva
Rosenberg, Web's Tax Mama. and a tax professional licensed to represent taxpayers before the
IRS: "You're nervous about charging something online and here you are putting all your tax
information online on somebody else's Web site." Web computing seems very much vulnerable to
cyberbreaches. I will wait until the cream rises on this approach before tasting.

Then NEVER, EVER eFile. The compromise that can occur is in THREE places:

1. Between your tax software and the tax preparer.
2. At the tax preparer's web/physical location.
3. Between the tax preparer and the appropriate tax authority.

BTW, your paper documentation is scanned or inputted at the tax authority to the same systems that you woule eFile to.

The last thing is that your SSL session is only as secure as the keys you are using. I demand 256 bit protection at a minimum with my preparer.

Also, there is little to be gained by breaching a tax preparer. Most of the information available from them is available on-line elsewhere (you would be surprised at the amount of publically available information on you.)

As far as Wine goes, you seemed to have success with completing one part of the process. It may be more beneficial if 2nd Story got TaxACT to work with Wine.

James McKenzie