Hi everybody

So its the tax season and Im looking for something to use under Linux. The best solution I found is to use simpletax so just wanted to find out who has used SimpleTax, did you like it? was it user friendly?Is it secure? Would you use it again? etc.

Also I'm not a security expert but Simpletax claim this for the encryption can someone comment if it a good appropriate to securing information

Data Ownership & Encryption

Your data is yours. We will never, ever, sell it.

Your tax data is encrypted on our servers using your password as the key. You are the only person who can access your account; we can't decrypt your data without your password. If you lose your password, we are not able to reset or recover it for you.

Your password is salted with a 9 byte salt and hashed with MD5 before being sent over HTTPS to our server. This hash is never stored in a cache or on disk. We take this hash and salt it again with an 8 byte salt and hash it using PBKDF2 with SHA1 for 60,000 iterations. The resulting signature is what we store in our database.

Your tax data is sent over HTTPS to our server where it is encrypted using AES in CTR mode. The IV is a 128 bit number generated with a cryptographically secure random number generator. We also store an HMAC of the data which is packed along with it. The cryptographic key is derived from the second to last hash pulled from the PBKDF2 algorithm used to hash the password. This ensures that the key cannot be derived from anything stored in our database. The key must be transmitted from the client and a full hash run each time the data is encrypted or decrypted.

You can delete your account, and all your data, at any time.

SSL/TLS and HSTS

The connection between you and our servers uses high-grade encryption. We use HTTPS across all our services with an Extended Validation (EV) certificate from DigiCert. We have an A+ rating from SSL Labs. We also use HSTS to ensure your browser only uses HTTPS. We are on the HSTS preloaded lists for both Chrome and Firefox.

thanks

Hi Slakerlife,

Please do not copy the advertising for some software package or website you've used into a technical thread. I'm asking you now to edit and remove all the portions starting with the first bold sentence.

The forum rules do not permit advertising. Please visit http://www.linuxquestions.org/advertising/ for more information on advertising. Feel free to contact the forum admin if you have any questions about this policy.

Best Regards

Hello rtmister, I had completely forgotten about this thread. Where would it be better to ask this question. And it seems I can only edit this post and not the first, is there some thing I'm missing?

American here – I use a spreadsheet to do the calculations, download the tax forms as PDFs, fill them out, print them, and mail them ... "certified mail, return receipt requested."

I then make a duplicate copy of the spreadsheet and the PDFs, along with a scan of both sides of the returned postcard. A printed copy and a CD of the material goes in my fire-safe. Forever.

I did this for predictable reasons after learning a painful lesson: one month before the statute of limitations would have run out, tax authorities insisted that I hadn't sent in my tax forms ... five years before. How to prove it? I don't think that an electronic receipt, printed out on a piece of paper, would have done the trick. But a five-year old green postcard, bearing a five-year old postmark, did.

Furthermore, I have encountered "glaring errors" in one year's computerized tax calculations, brought about by a software update that left a mixture of updated and not-updated software modules. I've also found that the numbers, when correct, were too-conservatively calculated for my situation and therefore were wrong.

Usually, tax calculations are not complicated. (Painful(!), yes, but not complicated.) Just follow the main logic of each form in a simple spreadsheet. Use different areas of the same spreadsheet to correspond to each different "form." With minor changes, you can use a copy of the same spreadsheet from year to year.
You'll save money on unnecessary software, and you'll also know how your taxes were calculated. The computer still does all of the mathematical lifting, just under your control.

... and your postal service acts as an "uninterested (but 'also government') third party" in evidencing that the necessary document mailing did, in fact, occur. Although they of course cannot vouch as to what the aforesaid envelope did or did not contain, they are a mighty and dependable remedy against "self-serving official ... 'forgetfulness.'"

Thanka sundial