[ale] Online taxes for Linux

[Robert Reese~]

> FYI, My wife wanted some tax software and now that she's using
> Ubuntu on her laptop, was disappointed to find that TurboTax
> doesn't support Linux.  I found several posts that TaxAct (an
> online tax application, state and federal package costs $16.95),
> but when I went to their web site, no mention of Linux support.  So
> I called them, and they confirmed that their software worked fine
> with Linux.  We're going to try to do our taxes today, so I'll post
> a followup on how easy/difficult it was.


My wife and I used TaxAct.com.  I went there after seeing a commercial for 
$16.95 for both federal and state.  Since I was sitting there with my Ubuntu 
8.10 (32bit) laptop, I immediately went to the website using my browser of 
choice: Opera.  In this case, it was Opera 10 alpha.

I had no problem whatsoever, and again confirmed this with Opera 9.6x and 
Firefox 3.0.x, both from the laptop.  This was my "litmus test" and TaxAct 
passed superbly with flying colors.

We did our taxes in record time, flawlessly and virtually effortlessly.  And 
since I have two businesses, we thought we were going to be in trouble.  Not so; 
TaxAct handled all of it without a problem.  Sure, we had a few moments of 
confusion and uncertainty, but careful reading was all that was needed; TaxAct 
even made that pretty easy.  Even with the sole-proprietor businesses, it was 
just $16.95 for both filings.  Plus we got to download PDFs of our returns for 
printing and archiving.

This website and company should be praised for their decision to ensure *any* 
customer could use their service.  Their dedication to ensuring cross-platform 
browser neutrality should be a lesson to the rest of the world.  Finally, a 
company that "gets it" when it comes to standards and why they exist.

Do I recommend them?  Yeah.  110%...  we'll be doing our taxes again with 
them next year.

Cheers,
Robert~