TAX NEWS - June 2010

US Tax: 'Tax Preparation Packages' IM-Speak Inspire Darpa's Latest

The Pentagon's premiere research arm has been reduced to building mission planning software "inspired by… tax preparation packages."

And to make matters worse, Darpa wants to give the $18 million, 39-month project a name straight outta the chat room: OBTW, short for "Oh By The Way."

Under pressure from Congress to pitch in the war effort, the Defense Department's blue sky research arm has come down to Earth. First, Darpa announced a rather conventional online counseling program. Now, this TurboTax takeoff.

"In the case of tax preparation software, tax code expertise is encoded and made available through a question-and-answer interface that enables taxpayers who possess only a very limited knowledge of tax code to produce tax returns that would otherwise require an expert-level understanding of tax code. The OBTW program seeks to extend this model to mission-planning environments," the agency explains.