Comment on IRS tax filing software released to the people as free software
lung@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
That’s so cool, maybe the first time in the history of humanity that we see open source tax software, that’s guaranteed to be accurate to the law. For one year at least
It runs Scala / Java, and has docker configs, decent documentation. And and ominous message explaining that some parts were too secret to open source so they had to rewrite chunks of it. Overall, it seems like it was a big project just to get this published, and I am impressed they managed it, given the software team was comprised of 3 different agencies and several contractor firms
catloaf@lemm.ee 2 weeks ago
It’s definitely not guaranteed to be accurate to the law. In fact, I’m surprised there isn’t a disclaimer to that effect on the GitHub project page. Maybe it’s because they’re the government and if you true to sue over an error, they can tell you to go pound sand.
Khanzarate@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Well the IRS says it is accurate.
It doesn’t say accurate to what standard but I think its pretty clear that “tax law” is the default here.
LilB0kChoy@midwest.social 2 weeks ago
Did the government claim it was accurate to the law? I’m guessing just providing code doesn’t open the government to liability. That would fall on anyone who implemented it. I always assumed that’s why for-cost software has Ts&Cs that indemnify them unless you pay extra for the protection.