I've been using SimpleTax for the past four years and it's top-notch.
I've also been working on @suter for about that long to get them to make the years before 2012 available via SimpleTax, for those of us who have friends that have let their taxes slide for a long, long time. Hopefully one of these days the cost/benefit will work out.
Nice. I promise we're telling the truth. ;) The tax code changes a lot from year to year. Even if we had the tax resources to implement prior years (and the cost/benefit made sense), the CRA doesn't retroactively certify products.
I wish there was an easy, silver bullet answer for people who are behind on their taxes, but it really depends on each person's situation.
The better solution is to radically simplify the Income Tax Act. This would make the system easier for everyone and ultimately make products like ours redundant. It's the right outcome and one we'd like to see one day. Until we get there, we fill a critical gap. Free CRA software won't fix the problem and—I'd argue—would be a huge step backwards.
Ha, thanks, I figured you'd be on here. Yes, I really do believe it's a tough problem. I'll vote in favor of any solution that allows people to get their affairs in order more easily. Hope it happens.
We implemented search on our help site (http://help.simpletax.ca) using the excellent lunr.js (http://lunrjs.com) + this Jekyll plug-in (https://github.com/slashdotdash/jekyll-lunr-js-search). The search index is updated when you build your Jekyll site, so it's a piece of cake to maintain and gives you full text search. I don't know how well it would scale, but if you are in the hundreds of posts, you should be ok.
SnapTax was awesome—until it got acquired and killed.
Ever since then, I was really frustrated with the state of tax software in Canada. The fact that over 6 million people still do their taxes on paper, and that most people turn to expensive tax preparers for even the simplest of returns, drove us to build http://simpletax.ca. We're lucky in that we have a non-practicing tax lawyer on board.
There is so much good technology can do in this space.
Woohoo! Hadn't heard of you guys until today but excited to give SimpleTax a try. I've already filed 2012 taxes but I've added a link in my 2013 taxes folder and will give you a shot next year.
Pay what you want is an interesting (crazy?) choice...care to elaborate on why you went this route? Everyone is already used to paying for tax software so on the surface it would seem like a no brainer to charge a fee.
Are we crazy? Yes, but hopefully crazy enough to change the industry. We initially set out with the plan to charge a fee, but there is a long list of industry-specific reasons as to why we got a little more creative. Like any startup, we're experimenting with our business model.
Could we make more by charging a fee? Maybe. At the end of the day, we're happy building the best product we can and making it available to as many people as possible.
Thanks for the feedback cmer! And you're totally right—we want to be very careful about using the word free. We are really a "pay what you want" service.
We initially offered returns for a flat $10, but being new in this space, we found it was difficult to get attention and that many were still doing their taxes on paper because of the perception that they had to pay. We're hoping we can convince many of these paper filers to switch knowing that payment is optional, not mandatory.
Great points. We've tried to build trust by showing that we're real people (e.g. here's what we look like!), but I agree we could do more. Great feedback.
Don't assume people will go as far as trying your app to find out. Most people don't understand the difference anyways between the app and marketing site.
No, you're totally right. I've added our site seal to the footer which verifies our identity. I've also modified our privacy policy with a link to this verification as well.
As we get more coverage, we'll add more symbols of trust right at the top of the page.
We're just getting started, so thanks for your feedback!
To be honest, I don't see how "pay what you want" is any better than free. I'd A/B test this, but my gut feeling is that charging a flat fee will lead to much higher conversion.
Thanks for the feedback Mankhool. We're also exploring a version that would just make use of HTML5's local storage. Is that something you would consider?
This site is absolutely beautiful. Well done. I'd love to know a little more about the tools (generators?) that were used as it appears to be a completely static site.
https://www.apple.com/ca/shop/product/MNC73CL/A/siri-remote