My wife and I just finished our taxes. It was a hard pill to swallow knowing we weren’t going to get a refund this year.
What made it a bit easier, however, was the redesigned user interface for Taxcut. I’ve used Taxcut every year since graduating from college and found each year to be an improvement over the last. This year’s Taxcut is particularly impressive. They’ve simplified their helpers, refined their UI, and made it slightly more bearable to complete my tax forms.
Just for fun, I like to look at the actual 1040 alongside Taxcut’s worksheets. It helps me to appreciate the software for what it does — simplify a tangled mess of crap. Look at the taxcode and try to understand which worksheets go with which forms, and what lines need to be filled out when. It’s awful.
Take a look at what Alan Siegel had to say about poorly designed legal documents. I wonder what Alan would have to say about 1040’s.
Hmm… I wonder if the makers of Taxcut / Turbotax apply any leverage to the IRS to keep their tax forms complicated. Would make sense, since a simpler 1040 would erode their profits.