Toying with idea of making a fullfledged tax return computation for 1040 form in excel

[jvasania]

Hi All

I am toying with the idea of preparing an excel worksheet which will do the tax computation, tax calculation, credits etc. (tax form 1040). The idea is to prepare and capture the complex tax code in it's entirety and to come up with a 3/4 pages income, deductions, adjustments, tax, credits, etc. summary which will help the taxpayer appreciate his tax return as against 200/300 pages of return generated by a tax software. The excel sheet will not prepare tax forms for printing or filing. The idea is to then pivot to tax planning and if scenarios. I am not a excel expert but a tax professional. Is it a worthwhile idea or a practical idea to put the complex code in excel? Is that doable? The idea also solves many other pain points. But my question is - is this something even doable or worth trying. Anyone having any experience in this? Any potential partners who want to collaborate?

Thanks
Jagdish

 

[etaf]

have you looked online to see if this tax form template already is available for excel

I searched for
tax form 1040 excel template
and had a lot of hits , BUT was not sure if any of the free templates available fits the need of the US IRS , as i'm UK based and looks like the FORM 1040 is a US form , although some sites said that form was discontinued , but as i say not idea on US tax forms

Is it a worthwhile idea or a practical idea to put the complex code in excel? Is that doable?

i'm sure its doable , worth trying , i guess thats your call , as a tax professional, you would know the need

I suspect a lot of the accounting software like sage , would already do something like this which would have been approved by the tax authority - pretty sure it exists in the UK to feed the tax system here

heres some of the results form a seach

Federal Income Tax Spreadsheet Form 1040 (Excel Spreadsheet) Income Tax Calculator - Download

To download the US Federal Income Tax Excel Spreadsheet, first carefully read the disclaimer.

sites.google.com

https://www.reddit.com/r/tax/comments/sifmbq/excel_1040_spreadsheet

Free Microsoft Excel-based 1040 form available

By David H. Ringstrom, CPA Just in time for tax season, Glenn Reeves of Burlington, Kansas has created a free Microsoft Excel-based version of the 2008 U.S. Individual Tax Return, commonly known as Form 1040. The spreadsheet includes both pages of Form 1040, as well as these supplemental...

www.acctadv.com

Free tax form template for forms 1040 and 1041 to simplify filing

Tax season doesn’t have to be a nightmare if you use the right tools and process. Begin with this tax template and advice on automation.

karbonhq.com

 

[jvasania]

have you looked online to see if this tax form template already is available for excel

I searched for
tax form 1040 excel template
and had a lot of hits , BUT was not sure if any of the free templates available fits the need of the US IRS , as i'm UK based and looks like the FORM 1040 is a US form , although some sites said that form was discontinued , but as i say not idea on US tax forms


i'm sure its doable , worth trying , i guess thats your call , as a tax professional, you would know the need

I suspect a lot of the accounting software like sage , would already do something like this which would have been approved by the tax authority - pretty sure it exists in the UK to feed the tax system here

heres some of the results form a seach

Federal Income Tax Spreadsheet Form 1040 (Excel Spreadsheet) Income Tax Calculator - Download

To download the US Federal Income Tax Excel Spreadsheet, first carefully read the disclaimer.

sites.google.com

https://www.reddit.com/r/tax/comments/sifmbq/excel_1040_spreadsheet

Free Microsoft Excel-based 1040 form available

By David H. Ringstrom, CPA Just in time for tax season, Glenn Reeves of Burlington, Kansas has created a free Microsoft Excel-based version of the 2008 U.S. Individual Tax Return, commonly known as Form 1040. The spreadsheet includes both pages of Form 1040, as well as these supplemental...

www.acctadv.com

Free tax form template for forms 1040 and 1041 to simplify filing

Tax season doesn’t have to be a nightmare if you use the right tools and process. Begin with this tax template and advice on automation.

karbonhq.com

Thank you so much for taking time out.

Yes it is US federal tax return. It is still used and widely used. The basic return is called 1040 and there are schedules to be attached based upon the income the taxpayer has and claims which he or she is making. I have downloaded and used the excel utility (which is awesome). However, it attempts to prepare a tax return to print and send to IRS. My idea is to prepare a summary of the income and tax thereon. But for the uninitiated, US federal tax is very very complex with too many ifs / buts and dependencies. So my question is - Is it even worth trying to build that in excel? Even the utility one which we are referring does not capture many use cases and only caters to bit simple situation. Whether excel with it's new built in python integration is worth giving a shot?

 

[etaf]

i'm sure its doable , worth trying , i guess thats your call , as a tax professional, you would know the need

But for the uninitiated, US federal tax is very very complex with too many ifs / buts and dependencies. So my question is - Is it even worth trying to build that in excel?

Maybe because of the so many IFs / Buts and the complexity to create given some use cases which maybe unique, its not readily available
The amount of code maybe enormous to cover a small % of use cases and the time to construct maybe not worth the return

as I said , its up to you how much time and effort you are prepared to put in for possible limited return, as a TAX professional , you would know how often this is the case and if there is a market for it or if it would eventually save you time and hence more profit in the business

Anyone having any experience in this? Any potential partners who want to collaborate?

No Experience , as you can tell from my replies and so No collaboration - OTHER than if you need a specific thing to work in the sheet as you create it , then i would be happy to just answer a question as posted like i do for people here

 

[Joe4]

So my question is - Is it even worth trying to build that in excel?

I would say probably not. Not only is the code extremely complex, as you mentioned, but it is also constantly changing.
So anything you build would need to be revised every year.

With so many tax programs out there that already do this, I don't think it would be a worthwhile venture.
I use the H&R Block software, and that comes with a tax planning module already (though I have never tried it myself).