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It’s Form 1040, In Excel—Need I Say More?

Posted on by Adrienne Gonzalez

You people with a predilection for tax forms. At least you’re not Glenn Reeves, the guy who has slavishly recreated Form 1040 in Microsoft Excel for the past 17 years. Sick of Lacerte, ATX, Creative Solutions, and their ilk? Figure out how deep the gubmint’s hand is going in your pocket in a spreadsheet instead. Take your rogue ways further with off-the-grid spreadsheets like Libre Office or Gnumeric Portable. The latter runs off of a flash drive, so it’s ideal for figuring out your taxes while you hang with the porn surfers at the public library.

As is requisite for tax forms, there’s a dose of pain involved with getting to the damn thing Reeves has developed. When you click the download link, it’ll promptly choke up in Google Docs. Look for a prompt that lets you save it to your computer instead, and then you’ll be filing your tax form like its 1999—all seventeen years of the spreadsheet are available for immediate download.

As you can see in Figure 1, the form closely mirrors the official IRS format, but Reeves doesn't guarantee that the IRS will accept printed versions of this form. He personally files his return online after using the spreadsheet to compute his return.

The 2013 version of the spreadsheet includes both pages of Form 1040, as well as these supplemental schedules:

  • Schedule A – Itemized Deductions
  • Schedule B –Interest and Ordinary Dividends
  • Schedule C – Profit or Loss from Business
  • Schedule D – Capital Gains and Losses, along with its worksheet
  • Schedule E – Supplemental Income and Loss
  • Schedule SE – Self-Employment Tax
  • Form 6251 – Alternative Minimum Tax – Individuals
  • Form 8949 – Sales and Dispositions of Capital Assets

The spreadsheet also includes several worksheets that I won't list out because ain't nobody got time for that.

The workbook is locked down with passwords, but you can go all NSA on the spreadsheet with a quick visit to www.lostpassword.com, or if you don’t mind risking a side of malware, poke around on Google.

Although Reeves gives the spreadsheet away, he does accept appreciation contributions, which he reports on his tax return as income (because of course he does). He also donates 10% of any contributions to his church.

Questions? Problems with the spreadsheet? Don’t ask me, I didn’t write it. I have better ways of spending my time. Capiche?

David H. Ringstrom, CPA — @excelwriter on Twitter — heads up Accounting Advisors, Inc., an Atlanta-based software and database consulting firm.

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Albany Risks Outright Anarchy Enforcing Taxes on Sliced Bagels

The battle between California and New York for the biggest fiscal shitshow has reached new heights as Albany seems to be going after New Yorkers where it really counts.

For many of you living in New York, grabbing a bagel at your local shop is part of the weekday morning routine. You walk in, wait in line, place the order, pay the total and get on with your day. It’s good to know that the one constant in your life is that the Ess-a-Bagel will charge you the same price for your sesame seed bagel with butter day after day after day.

Well! That constant, your rock, your consistently-priced doughy security blanket may soon be stripped away from you. The Journal reported yesterday that bagel chain Bruegger’s got the wrath of the New York Department of Taxation and Finance, demanding that owner Kenneth Greene start collecting “taxes on all bagels, except for those that remain intact and are consumed off premises,” and collected a ‘significant’ sum of taxes owed.

Why, you ask? Because an obscure law on the books says that a sales tax is to be charged on “sliced or prepared bagels (with cream cheese or other toppings).” OH! And if you eat your everything with cream cheese and tomato in the shop, you’ll also be charged the tax.


The Post has stretched the lengths of investigative journalism once again to find out that most of the vendors around the City haven’t been charging you the extra 9¢ for that carbolicious breakfast.

[T]he vast majority of the bagel vendors The Post visited yesterday didn’t tax sliced bagels with no toppings as they are supposed to.

“I don’t think it’s fair. Why would I put tax on a sliced bagel when you don’t want nothing on it?” said Basil Colon, a cashier at Daniel’s Bagels on Third Avenue in Murray Hill.

He served a cinnamon-raisin bagel, sliced with no spread, to a Post reporter for $1.10, which didn’t include the extra tax of about 9 cents.

Like many bagel-store workers throughout the city, he didn’t know about the slice tax.

We think we speak for everyone, when we say, “What. The. Fuck. Albany?” This is what it has come to? The dire fiscal needs of the Empire State have gotten to the point that you’re shaking down bagel shops for an extra 9¢ per bagel? Granted, that may be a lot – A LOT – of bagels but you’re applying the smallest bandage in the box to a gaping head wound. A head wound that has caused many to think that the next step is to put a tourniquet on the neck of the state government.

You really want to kill the will of the people? Just keep shit like this up. Next thing you know they’ll start slapping the tax on pizza unless you buy the whole pie…unsliced.

Sliced Bagels, Taxes on Top [WSJ]
NY’s cut of bagel ‘dough’ [NYP]

IRS Not Just Going After Loose Change: Audits of Millionaires Rising

So this morning we learned that some IRS Agents decided to get huffy with a taxpayer over a sum that was less than a sketchy gas station party favor.

With this in mind, the more affluent of you may think that the IRS was finally recognizing that the millionaires in this country are the ones that make things happen. If the IRS would just BTFU and let the rich do their thing we’d get this economy back to blowing asset bubbles.

Unfortunately, Doug Shulman has remained steadfast in his commitment to making millionaires’ life hell by virtue of increasing the number of IRS audits on the wealthy.


According to a report in the New York Times, audits of individuals that earn at least $1 million are way up, “The federal agency increased its audits of taxpayers who earned $1 million to $5 million by 33 percent last year compared with 2008.” And if you’re in an even higher class of Joneses, your chances of getting audited are going up too, “[T]he I.R.S. increased its audits by 16 percent for those earning $5 million to $10 million last year. Audits of those who made at least $10 million rose by 8.5 percent, according to the data.”

The Times quotes a tax expert, Richard Boggs of Nationwide Tax Relief who then says the unthinkable (our emphasis):

“The I.R.S. is getting smart,” he said. “They are starting to better leverage their time, resources and talent in order to collect the most money. There is a definite shifting of the tide.” He said audits of those making at least $10 million rose slightly less than for other categories because so many of the ultrawealthy were already being audited.

We’re sure Mr Boggs is a top-notch tax guru but there is strong evidence that suggests that the IRS will still try to collect less substantial sums.

However, we have to admit, the numbers don’t lie. Millionaires out there, your chances of getting audited are going up and that sucks. But what should make everyone really nervous is the Service attempting to collect your loose change. Next time you see a nickel on the ground, we suggest you leave it there.

I.R.S. Says Its Audits of Wealthy Are Rising [NYT]

Grover Norquist Knows What It Will Take to Enact Real Tax Reform

Nemesis of all-things-taxation Grover Norquist believes that there can be good changes to our tax system (lower rates, DUH!). But seriously, as Ronald Reagan as his witness, this is really simple,

“A lot of good tax changes are going to require a different president and a different Senate.” So at the very least, you’ll have to wait two years. That’s all. [The Hill]