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Show HN: A proof-of-concept formalization of the IRS federal tax forms

25 points RGS1811 1 day ago 4 comments

The linked repo is 100% vibe coded, but it was built on a handful of principles:

- Most tax software derives trust from the party who maintains it (e.g. Intuit, the IRS, etc.)

- Vibe coded software lacks this trustworthiness.

- Therefore any formalization should build in verifiability and mechanisms that make it possible for users/maintainers to trace claims/interpretations back to authoritative source documents.

It's very much a back-burner passive project right now (do not use this for anything real!), but I feel strongly that something like this ought to exist for the public good. I built it to get a sense of what the shape of what such a thing might be.

dang 1 hour ago | parent

Recent and related: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50278497

RGS1811 54 minutes ago | parent

Author here: if you want a detailed overview of the project, the spec is better than the (claude-authored) README file:

https://github.com/emmilco/us-tax-model/blob/main/spec/spec....

rsrsrs86 16 minutes ago | parent

Looks like slop. If you had taken the time to work on it, you’d find out that there’s already a solution for this kind of analysis. It’s called Catala. Too bad you are too lazy… this kind of half baked research shows how bad it is to use AI instead of thinking.

GrumpyGoblin 11 minutes ago | parent

Have fun keeping this up to date. It's an admirable idea, but the tax forms and rules change significantly every year. I built a payroll system for a suite of small and medium sized businesses back in the day. Even during a stable administration the rules are impossible to keep up with. We had a team of engineers who every year had to spend weeks to months trying to keep it up to date and verify the numbers. It's why my accountant makes $400/hr and why there are no open source projects that have ever taken hold in the market.

> Most tax software derives trust from the party who maintains it (e.g. Intuit, the IRS, etc.)

Because they have the resources to keep it up to date. And even they get it wrong sometimes. Including the IRS itself: https://www.irs.gov/e-file-providers/known-issues-and-soluti...