Open-source Tax Solver (OTS)

OpenTaxSolver (OTS) is a free, safe + secure program for calculating Tax Form entries for Federal and State personal income taxes. It automatically fills-out and prints your forms for mailing.

News:

As in prior years, the OTS package will cover popular forms released by the IRS and several states. These are the Federal-1040, Schedules 1-3 along with Schedules A-D, and the states of VA, NC, OH, NJ, MA, PA, CA, and NY. A new state was contributed last year - AZ. The package will also include form programs for the Health Savings Account (HSA) Form 8889 and Form 8606 for Nondeductible IRAs, and Schedule-SE - all accessed under the Other Forms bullet of the OTS GUI front screen. Several additional forms have been contributed under the Other Forms bullet, including: Forms 2210, 8959, 8960, and California Form 5805.

Always check back here for updates and downloads.

Taxes will generally be due next year on April 15th, 2025.

All fields in the filled-out PDF forms can be changed or edited with Libre-Office Draw.

Movies:
OTS has two movies on Youtube:

1-minute OTS Overview - Quick brief on what OTS does. OTS Introduction Video - How to download, install, & use OTS.

The first one shows basically what OTS does and how it works -- good to watch if you are deciding whether to download it. The second one is a helpful instructional guide for first time users. If we get good feedback that these are helpful, then we will add more movies on requested topics. These were created a few years ago now, but the process still looks basically similar.

Auto-Fillout:
Saves time by filling out the answers onto the actual government PDF tax-forms. Auto-Fillout of PDF Forms is now available for all forms supported OTS (Federal & State). You will see the Auto-Fillout option when you click Print.

Mailing List:
Join the OTS mailing list to receive important messages about new updates and fixes: Subscribe to New OTS Releases & Updates. Very low traffic. (You can remove yourself from the list at anytime by sending an email from your email account to OTS.notices@gmail.com with the words "Remove me." as the first words in the subject line.)

General:
In the USA for the upcoming tax-season, your 2024 Federal Taxes must be post-marked, on or before, Tuesday, April 15, 2025. Many State Taxes will be due that day as well.     If you file for an extension, then your final form(s) generally must be postmarked by Wednesday, October 15, 2025.

Also, as the New Year starts, remember that the Payroll Withholding Calculator is helpful for calculating adjustments to your weekly pay-check deductions throughout the year, to avoid under-withholding or over-withholding.

OTS FaceBook Page:    
Please visit and like-us on our FaceBook page.

Donate:
Several users have asked how they can help support OTS, even if not technically inclined. So a fund-drive has been started under Please-Fund-Us to support continued updates and improvements to this project. Visit the fund-drive page at:
The page explains how the funds will be used. No donation amount is too small. Every bit is helping.

Overview

OTS is intended for those who are comfortable doing their own taxes - especially those who have previously done their taxes and basically understand how to fill out the forms. OTS does much of the math for you.

The OTS_GUI is the default Graphical User Interface. The GUI allows you to conveniently enter tax data, and then invokes the appropriate text program when you press the Compute button. Alternatively, you can directly enter your tax data by editing the text files with your favorite text editor, and then process it by invoking the appropriate tax-solver program. Most people nowadays use the GUI, so that is the default mode according to instructions in the package.

Behind the GUI is a text-window. It shows the actual commands the GUI uses when you press buttons. You can look at that, if you wish, to learn how to run the same commands directly from your command-line. Since the GUI is fairly self-explanatory, the detailed documentation focuses on how the core text programs work, for those interested.

   

Example screen shots of OTS_GUI.

Although originally created for US 1040 tax forms, the core routines have also been used to solve other tax forms, and for other countries or states. Some basic error checking is included.

While the OTS programs developed over many years, results have often been checked against commercial packages. The answers produced by OTS typically matched to within a dollar or so, differing sometimes by rounding effects. Certainly your mileage may vary. Always double-check your tax forms!!

Documentation

• Usage
• Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
• Data Input Format
• How to Run or Compile OTS
• How the Core Text-based Program Works
• Program Design & Structure
• How to Add New Forms
• Motivations

Download OpenTaxSolver

Source code and compiled executables are available in all download packages. Example form-data files are included for all forms. Typical package size is about 10-MB (small by today's standards), which includes all the PDF forms. Prior year's versions are available at Downloads.

Unpacking
Packages for Linux/Unix/MaxOSx are tar-gzip (.tgz), while packages for Microsoft are zip files. To unpack, double-click on the package. Or from a command-line,   tar xfz package.tgz   or   unzip package.zip . Will unpack into a directory of the same name. (To see contents prior to unpacking, tar tvfz package.tgz   or   unzip -l package.zip .)

Tar packages contain precompiled executables for Linux (64-bit), and MacOSx.
Zip packages contain precompiled executables for Microsoft PCs.
Source code and compilation instructions are also provided in all versions.
(Uninstall by simply deleting the directory. No registry entries are made.)

Other Links

• Official Tax Forms / Fill-in Forms - Links to Government sites.
• Subscribe to New OTS Releases & Updates.
• OTS Status BLOG - Discussions and musings.
• To-Do List - Tasks for volunteers.
• Other Efforts & Related News:
  • Misc.Taxes.Moderated - Tax Discussion Forum - Good place to Ask/Answer Tax Questions, get help, or to search for answers. (Usenet News Group)
  • The Tax Book - another fairly active Tax Discussions Forum
  • Use OpenTaxSolver as an open source alternative to TurboTax
  • Why and How to Do Your Taxes with Open Tax Solver
  • FTC finds TurboTax "free" is not free for most - (ftc.gov - 1/22/2024)
  • Inside TurboTax's 20-Year Fight to Stop Americans From Filing Their Taxes for Free
  • TurboTax, H&R-Block Spend Big Bucks Lobbying ...
  • How to Figure Income Tax - Some tax humor (1938). Wow! Still the same ...
  • TenForty - a new Python project on GitHub that uses OTS to compare tax scenarios. See also the related Blog - Can GPT Optimize My Taxes?.
• Acknowledgments and Credits for Contributors.

Feedback welcome.

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