@fsf It took me a while to get around to this, but... it's done. Full text of letter follows.

Write your own letter to the IRS requesting that they provide libre tax-filing software!

u.fsf.org/3zd

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2023-05-05

Mr. Preston Maness
5662 Cedar Creek Dr
Benbrook, TX 76109-5769

The Honorable Danny Werfel, Commissioner, Internal Revenue Service
1111 Constitution Ave. NW
Washington, DC 20224

Dear Commissioner Werfel,

I was made aware by the Free Software Foundation (FSF) -- an organization that I am a member of, and that is dedicated to advancing Free Software -- that the IRS is considering developing an electronic service that taxpayers can use to prepare and file returns directly with the IRS. I think this is a great idea and would like to add my voice in support of this effort.

The FSF can probably do a better job than me of describing Free Software in all its details -- you can see an overview at "fsf.org/about/what-is-free-sof" and email campaigns@fsf.org as well for more information -- but, in a nutshell, it is about respecting the taxpayer's freedom in the realm of software. Software funded and developed by the public sector has, in my opinion, an obligation to respect the freedoms of the taxpayers that are underwriting it. As a software engineer, I would love the opportunity to use, promote, and even assist in developing such an electronic service.

To that end, should the IRS go through with developing such a service, I highly recommend adopting a "codeforge" (the infrastructure used for hosting software code and for running various operations associated with the code) that is itself Free Software, such as "SourceHut" or "Gitea", as opposed to non-free services like "Github". I also would love to see any code written for the service be licensed under the FSF's strongest Free Software license, the "GNU Affero General Public License, version 3" (AGPLv3). This license provides the strongest guarantees to the software's users -- the taxpayers -- that their freedoms are respected.

Thank you for your consideration.

Sincerely,

Preston Maness
512-955-1048
aspensmonster@riseup.net