

The IRS guide to debugging XML errors in your rejected tax return - jpatokal
http://www.irs.gov/uac/Rejected-Return-Help-for-Free-File-Fillable-Forms

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mgraczyk
Shouldn't the link be [http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-utl/Fixing-Your-XML-
Error.pdf](http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-utl/Fixing-Your-XML-Error.pdf) ?

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meric
An efficient bureaucracy assigns forms with numbers, and user errors with
XPaths.

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gumby
I love that it begins, "Rejected returns are a disappointment."

(no snark implied. It is sweet).

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vgabios
Perhaps if the less wealthy were able to wrest power from the very wealthy
whom have clearly gamed the US tax code with Enron-like complexity, personal
taxes could be fairer and similar to Norway's dual model, where the govt
computes taxes for persons in the majority of cases based on standard
deductions and can be easily approved by the taxpayer by SMS if it is correct.
This would end most of the unnecessary labor and drudgery that also happens to
be extremely unfair.

The first point is the troubling one, because politicians in the US are drunk
with money of the very same people whom pay the least taxes and amass large
piles of cash to buy their interests, a behavior few people can do
individually (but could collectively, if they were sufficiently organized and
singularly aggressive on such an issue (crowdfunding-like model)).

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hanlec
Ridiculous. I'm wondering how large was the budget and who got the largest
stake of it for spitting all this useless errors (_nb_ it's still better than
failing silently)

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rtpg
I think this is just a thing, like any software projects, where there's a list
of bugs, and you try to fix as many as you can.

And when they're not fixed, the support team needs to write _something_. I can
sympathize with whoever wrote this. I imagine working for the IRS has its own
set of stresses (esp. considering this is stopping people from getting their
refunds or whatnot too)

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jvoorhis
For the past 3-4 years I've happily coughed up the fee for a good, local CPA.
I found them via word of mouth and recommended them since, based on their
results.

If we want to disintermediate the big chains, let's take a look at what the
good guys are doing and work with them. I've always seen a great value, and no
XML errors..

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ExpiredLink
XML Schema is not the right tool to validate user input.

