Tax form printing: Can't you just use LaTeX..? [LWN.net]

Tax form printing: Can't you just use LaTeX..?

Posted Jan 18, 2009 9:22 UTC (Sun) by i3839 (guest, #31386)
Parent article: The exceedingly grumpy editor's accounting system update

Why not have a template file for each specific form with placeholders for input data? Then LaTeX takes care of the specific formatting and it's easy to fill in forms with a simple script (e.g. replacing the placeholders with the actual values with sed or so.) If the placeholder tags are the same all software can stay the same except for the tex file, which will be form specific. Or use postscript directly if that turns out better. It doesn't look like a huge or complex problem all in all (but I've never seen those forms, nor do I know anything about USA's tax system).

As for the interface to the accountant, do you need one? An accountant I mean? Why not have no accountant, surely it costs a lot money for little gain?

(Log in to post comments)

Tax form printing: Can't you just use LaTeX..?

Posted Jan 23, 2009 13:58 UTC (Fri) by markhb (guest, #1003) [Link]

Trust me, the cost of paying an accountant is worth it relative to the cost of incorrectly filing with the IRS. Not to mention that you really don't want to foul up the filing of your contributors' tax documents; that's a good way to lose high-quality content fast. I've heard that in here the US the majority of individual returns go through a paid tax preparer now.

Tax form printing: Can't you just use LaTeX..?

Posted Jan 24, 2009 1:17 UTC (Sat) by i3839 (guest, #31386) [Link]

That sounds awfully scary to me. Is it that hard or tricky to fill in tax forms over there? And one mistake gets you in deep trouble instead of just needing to pay the difference?

I can understand that to avoid the paperwork hassle people just let some specialised company do their paperwork, but only to save time, not out of necessity.

I don't run a bussiness, but isn't it basically just keeping track of who, how much, when, and what for you pay money to someone, as well as keeping track of where your income comes from? It gets more complicated when you hire people, with all the taxes and stuff, but in LWN's case I suppose the people contributing are considered freelancers and aren't on the payroll, then it's just a fee for a service. Or am I totally wrong?

Tax form printing: Can't you just use LaTeX..?

Posted Jan 25, 2009 20:15 UTC (Sun) by dkite (guest, #4577) [Link]

>Or am I totally wrong?

Heh. I'm not sure of LWN's legal status, but if you are incorporated,
limited, or whatever it's called in your jurisdiction, you probably have to
have an accountant to do your tax returns.

The reporting requirements on small businesses are immense. We, a three
person outfit have two levels of value added taxes, payroll taxes,
subcontractor reports along with all the usual income tax at the end of the
year. Perversely the availability of software to automate most of it
encourages agencies to complicate matters even more.

And if you get it wrong, late or flag worthy, you will rue the day.

And no one understands how it should be done, even the people who wrote the
legislation and the agencies who administer them. It is very useful
insurance to have a reputable accountant's stamp on documents that they
see.

Derek

Tax form printing: Can't you just use LaTeX..?

Posted Jan 30, 2009 10:24 UTC (Fri) by i3839 (guest, #31386) [Link]

I've no experience with bussinesses, but as far as I know all tax stuff happens electronically here. There's a by the government supplied program which you can use to submit the data they need (and yes, there's a Linux version), but there might be a web application or website as well.