- 2-16-08:
Attempted to simplify release by
combining pre-compiled versions into a common zip package for both Linux and MS-win. Unfortunately
zip does not retain executable permissions. So now we are going back to separate releases: tar-gzip for
Unix/Linux, Zip for MS-Win.
Would be interesting to know how many people consider it useful to have the pre-compiled binaries,
or whether you recompile anyway. I know that I received many requests for executables on the MS-Win side.
Also, how many people use the GUI interface versus the command-line version? Fell free to drop me a vote.
- 2-15-08:
Well, all the the tax versions have been updated for 2007 (the ones coming due in mid-April), except
Massachusetts State Taxes. And they are believed fairly stable. Thanks for input/corrections from Justin Tripp
and Paul Kronenwetter.
- 1-14-08:
Initial versions of US-Fed 1040 and CA State taxes ready for download.
Have received request to increase precision from float (32-bits) to double (64-bits).
Float is good for about 6.5 digits of accuracy.
We had been hesitant to raise precision because all tax instructions, that I am aware of,
suggest rounding to the nearest dollar on each line. Or, if carrying cents, that each line can be
(should be?) rounded to the nearest cent. It is no doubt OK to carry more digits, but my guess is,
the IRS does not. You could probably explain differences due to using greater precision, if audited though.
In checking the accuracy of float, I found that it resolves down to the penny for amounts up to just larger
than a quarter million dollars ($262,144.00).
If you are lucky enough to have income in the millions, then OK, float precision might get off by a few cents or so.
(But then you might have someone else doing your taxes.)
However, since it is no trouble for the computer to do it, we have decided to change everything to double-precision.
We have not done it in the initial releases yet, because it will require some extra testing.
But we will increase precision in a near future release.
- 12-3-07:
The official 2007-year tax-forms are now becoming available. Work on updating OTS for 2007 now begins.
- 2-24-07:
The USA Federal and forms for several of the largest states have all been updated for 2006, and everything
appears stable. Thanks again to all contributors and for all the great comments and suggestions.
- 1-6-07:
Updated and posted US1040 version updated for 2006 tax-year. State versions to follow soon.
- 11-20-06:
Now updating forms for 2006 tax-year. ...
- 3-21-06:
Ok, all forms have been posted and appear stable. The Fed 1040, Scheds, and state versions of OTS were updated for
CA, MA, NJ, PA, NC, NY, VA, and OH. Still a month to go before the filing deadline, and I just received yet another
amended 1099 form -- good thing I did not file my taxes too early. Well, looks like we had our 15 minutes of fame,
see NewsForge article.
- 3-15-06:
Got off to a slow start this year. Started updating last year's forms early in November through early January. Then had a major PC
failure that took me off-line for a while, as well as some health issues. Well I am back on-line and in full-force now. Have posted updates for
the Fed 1040 for 2005, as well as CA, MA, NJ, and PA State Taxes. Special thanks to Robert Heller for the 1040 and Mass. updates!
Expect to get other state tax updates reviewed and posted during the week. Thanks to all contributor submissions. They are definitely helpful
and will speedup getting good versions out. Next year I promise to get the 2006 updates out much earlier, like in Nov or Dec..
- 3-23-05:
A lot of progress was made this year. Not only were all the form programs updated to use simplified core routines as well as
2004 tax year changes, but thanks to input from many contributors, a GUI front-end was added, and forms were added for two new states and countries.
The main US package was reorganized and simplified.
Many of the forms were extended to handle additional cases and work-sheets.
In the next year, we will focus on generating direct PDF outputs.
- 3-3-05:
Initial VA and OH state TaxSolvers completed and posted. Improved microsoft usage (0_Readme) instructions.
Beginning to remove the old-directory-structure distributions.
- 2-25-05:
Added optional cap-loss carry-over calculation to US1040. Either enter an amount, or last year's OTS output file-name, on line D6.
If a file-name, then it will import data from last year's form.
GUI was updated to handle newly re-organized release structure.
Beginning to add Ohio and Virginia state forms - almost complete - early downloads available in latest release.
With our other state forms, and by population (considering some states do not have income taxes), we now have about 50% coverage for state taxes.
(140M / 285M by 2000 census)
- 2-23-05:
Adopting re-organized directory structure and file naming conventions suggested by Krish Krothapalli et.al..
Separates sources from executables from data files. Only drawback, forces users to look into different directories
for a given form's executable and template file.
Previous method was self contained. Each form-version had all files in a single directory. Oh well it looks cleaner.
- 2-20-05:
Maybe we should provide a single download of all packages for unix/linux, instead of the individual source packages offered now?
It would include pre-compiled executables or Linux. We do provide this for microsoft as a .zip file, but a unix person grabbing it would
have to unix2dos all the text-files. I had not bothered with this because compiling OTS on unix is so simple, and most users know how to do it.
But it might be convenient. - Done.
Versions for Virginia and Ohio state taxes have been started, but are not ready for release. Early versions can be downloaded from
the CVS repository for anyone interested in helping develop them.
- 2-14-05: I believe all the presently released versions for 2004 taxes, are ready for use.
- 1-31-05: We now have a GUI for OTS. It is very basic, but it might help those who
prefer graphical interfaces. It will remain optional. It is based on Otk because it looks easy to maintain across all platforms.
Makes all the packages that much more useful. Just a start for now. With suggestions/contributions overtime it might become better.
- 1-22-05: For some governments, the tax calculation is troublesome. Either they do not publish a formula or require a table lookup.
In the past, I thought it was best to match a formula, but it could be off a dollar here and there.
I now believe in following Robert Heller's idea of including the actual tax table. In some cases, the table can be replaced by a formula
where it has been checked to track exactly for all values. I found such case for the US Federal tax this year.
But other cases, such as states, seems best to include the tables in a pre-declared array.
- 1-15-05: Updating the forms this year will require several iterations. I have released intermediate updates
to get make them available early, for anyone also helping to update them. (Was it Eric Raymond who said
release early and often?) - Thanks everyone for the early updates/improvements! They have been very very helpful.
- 1-5-05: Well this is OTS's second year on SourceForge. Last year was the first wide-audience release.
This year there is more disruption in updating the forms due to several
things.
First, due to suggestions that came in from several people last year, we will be simplifying the
line-get calls and making the default output go directly to a file (with .out suffix).
So-called magic-numbers are being replaced with meaningful macro names (example, filing status).
We will be better off when maintaining the forms in future because of these changes.
Second, the US tax code went through an unusual transient in the area of capital-gains
between last year and this year. This was due to the administration's change in cap-gains rates.
Last year was a transient year that required tracking sales prior to, or after, a certain day in the year (May 5),
as well as 5-year cap-gains. All that is removed this year, and replaced with some new sched-D worksheets.
I expect (hope) it will now remain stable for
some years to come. Most areas remained unchanged, except for some minor line number changes. Next year's updates should be more minor.
- 12-29-04: Still looking at direct PDF export of results. I have noticed there are uncompressed "form"
entries toward the bottom of most PDF tax files. They correspond to each of the form-boxes on the tax forms.
If there is a syntax to add entries into the boxes, the problem would be solved.
In another approach, Joel Young provided a java program. I have not gotten it to work and I am still looking to see how it could be integrated seamlessly within
the OTS programs. It looks like the source code of the critical functions, such as uncompressing pdf streams, is located elsewhere.
