Making easy (and free) to File Taxes through an app or website

Hello everyone, first time posting here. Not sure if this is the proper place to post this.
After reading this discord one of the recurring themes for Nouns is to do project that have an impact.
I was thinking about this for a while and one idea that keeps popping in my head is about filing taxes and how cumbersome that process can be for regular people when in fact it shouldn’t be.
I was wondering if nouns could fund project to make an app or site to help people file their taxes for free.
I understand that there are a lot of variations depending on which state you live and also depending on the personal circumstances. What I was thinking was to do the simplest case: a single or married person that works as an employee and does not have any other source of revenue. I know that there are thousand of reasons that can make this complicated or impossible to do but at the same time I feel that this can have a big impact on regular people. What do you think ?

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Reposting my message from Discord here:

"I love this idea! In another life working at a fintech, we were working on a similar project to help homeless and poverty-stricken people complete back taxes. for many that have not filed taxes for many years, there can literally be thousands of dollars in refunds available to them, which is life-changing money if you’re sleeping on the street. Also, having an up-to-date tax record can sometimes open doors for social programs from a purely bureaucratic perspective. "

I circled back with my colleague that had been closer to the idea than I had been, and she shared some helpful info that is relevant to Canada:

  • Free tax filing support is available to people with low incomes in Canada through programs at the federal and provincial level (link)
  • There are several grassroots community organizations that provide walk-in tax clinics as part of their financial literacy services to communities. It’s hands-on, in-person work. Here’s an example of one
  • H&R Block offers free walk-in tax clinics in Canada, partnering with shelters and non-profits to provide free, on-site tax preparation.

IMO, those that would benefit most from this kind of service need professional, in-person help, since they are less likely to have access to a computer or phone or have the technical know-how to file taxes on their own. There’s clearly a non-profit model for making this type of service available for free in shelters and community centers, so it would seem that it’s only a matter of connecting with qualified non-profits that are already doing this kind of thing at a grassroots level and funding them in order to scale their activities.

Would love to help in any way that I can, and can certainly bring in experts in Canada that can advise on the challenges, opportunities and best paths forward.

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