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Show HN: A continuation of IRS Direct File that can be self-hosted

(github.com)
242 points elijahwright_ | 1 comments | 30 Jun 25 22:08 UTC | HN request time: 0.297s | source

the IRS recently open sourced most of Direct File, a tax tool it has been working on for a few years now. unfortunately, due to recent events, the IRS isn't working on it anymore. I decided to pick up where they left off and I'm trying to get it ready for next tax season

the work behind Direct File is really interesting and I made a lot of it available online to read as well - https://docs.openfile.tax/en/latest/

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onetom ◴[01 Jul 25 10:21 UTC] No.44432388[source]▶
i'm not from the US, but i did work on forms related to government workflows.

it bugged me for a long time why a person can't store facts about themselves and let some software figure out which of those facts are needed for filling out any form, which needs the usual personal facts.

then one can review the required facts and decide which ones are they willing to share.

in fact governments could even standardize the kind of info they are dealing with usually and when a citizen wants the government to do something, instead of filling out forms, they could provide their own, self-hosted fact db, run the govt's query and provide the results (after review)

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2Gkashmiri ◴[01 Jul 25 17:36 UTC] No.44436235[source]▶
Taxes work on "self assessment" basis meaning you, the taxpayer have the burden to declare all facts relevant to assessment of your tax and you pay the tax.

Then, sometimes your case is picked for audit and then they check if what you declared is correct as per applicable laws or not.

See, here is a small mom and pop shop... who owns that? Is the premises on rent? How much ? Is the rent deed valid and proper? Maybe you are paying less rent than declaring? Are you actually employing people you say you are? Are you paying them exactly you say you are paying?

How would you ensure that fact db is not having funny data ?

Say i am saying i am paying 100 bucks a week for fuel but fact is, my shop is next door to my home and i am just pocketing this cash daily. If i keep putting this 100 bucks weekly expense in this factdb, how will govt know.that i am not lying?

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1. cxr ◴[01 Jul 25 20:12 UTC] No.44437609[source]▶
You're moving the goalposts; the purpose would be reducing toil (and possibly other costs) for the people who are currently tasked with filling out these types of forms.

There's nothing in the comment you're responding to that suggests that it's instead meant to be a solution to the problem of the government (or any other org) being unable to trust the inputs to its systems or ameliorate the costs of bad actors at all.

A person entering lies in their personal fact database tomorrow can submit the same lies on their personal income tax return today.