On Tue, Apr 13, 2010 at 11:33:57PM -0400, rsmoot@tampabay.rr.com wrote:
> Has anybody been able to file their income tax using Linux to fill out IRS's
> FreeFileFillableForms. I had already done my income tax and just wanted
> to efile
> without going thru the free tax preparers to do it.
> First they required you to have the Microsoft Silverlight plugin installed
> in FireFox.
> When I clicked on the link,
> I got the Moonlight plugin. This seemed to work. I printed the
> forms I filled to file. I could open them ande read them OK.
> When I tried to efile I got the error message "601
> ERRV:17,135-CustH-O:-invalid zip length".
> I booted to XP Pro, logged into their site and tried to efile my forms
> from their site and
> got exactly the same error message with windows.
> I have printed out the 1040 and am going to snail mail it in.
You're saying the *IRS* site required Silverlight/Moonlight? That's
worth a mention on Linux Weekly News or Slashdot et al. I deal with the
federal government through the Post Office and through the IRS's
electronic payroll tax deposit service. I've never run into any
requirements like that. They generally try to be pretty generic. Fedex
complains to me all the time about not using Windows or Macintosh, but
not the federal government.
The error sounds like the typical government inscrutable error. I've
seen this kind of thing on other government sites. Their programmers
typically write very unhelpful error messages, and apparently don't
understand the concept of failing gracefully. My experience is that when
this happens the government gets absolutely thrashed with complaints.
And in a few days, they fix it.
Can't help you with trying to eFile. I use an accountant and mail in
paper forms from him. (I don't trust computers. ;-)
Paul
-- Paul M. Foster ----------------------------------------------------------------------- This list is provided as an unmoderated internet service by Networked Knowledge Systems (NKS). Views and opinions expressed in messages posted are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of NKS or any of its employees.
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