stef-openclaw-skills/docs/us-cpa.md

us-cpa

us-cpa is a Python CLI plus OpenClaw skill wrapper for U.S. federal individual tax work.

Current Milestone

Current implementation now includes:

• deterministic cache layout under ~/.cache/us-cpa by default
• fetch-year download flow for the bootstrap IRS corpus
• source manifest with URL, hash, authority rank, and local path traceability
• authority ranking hooks for IRS materials and future primary-law escalation
• case-folder intake and conflict-stop handling
• question workflow with conversation and memo output
• prepare workflow for the current supported 1040 subset
• e-file-ready draft export payload generation

Review logic and broader form coverage are still pending.

CLI Surface

skills/us-cpa/scripts/us-cpa question --question "What is the standard deduction?" --tax-year 2025
skills/us-cpa/scripts/us-cpa question --question "What is the standard deduction?" --tax-year 2025 --style memo --format markdown
skills/us-cpa/scripts/us-cpa prepare --tax-year 2025 --case-dir ~/tax-cases/2025-jane-doe
skills/us-cpa/scripts/us-cpa review --tax-year 2025 --case-dir ~/tax-cases/2025-jane-doe
skills/us-cpa/scripts/us-cpa fetch-year --tax-year 2025
skills/us-cpa/scripts/us-cpa extract-docs --tax-year 2025 --case-dir ~/tax-cases/2025-jane-doe --create-case --case-label "Jane Doe" --facts-json ./facts.json
skills/us-cpa/scripts/us-cpa render-forms --tax-year 2025 --case-dir ~/tax-cases/2025-jane-doe
skills/us-cpa/scripts/us-cpa export-efile-ready --tax-year 2025 --case-dir ~/tax-cases/2025-jane-doe

Tax-Year Cache

Default cache root:

~/.cache/us-cpa

Override for isolated runs:

US_CPA_CACHE_DIR=/tmp/us-cpa-cache skills/us-cpa/scripts/us-cpa fetch-year --tax-year 2025

Current fetch-year bootstrap corpus for tax year 2025 is verified against live IRS irs-prior PDFs for:

• Form 1040
• Schedules 1, 2, 3, A, B, C, D, SE, and 8812
• Form 8949
• General Form 1040 instructions and selected schedule/form instructions

Interaction Model

• question
  • stateless by default
  • optional case context
• prepare
  • requires a case directory
  • if none exists, OpenClaw should ask whether to create one and where
• review
  • requires a case directory
  • can operate on an existing or newly-created review case

Planned Case Layout

<case-dir>/
  input/
  extracted/
  return/
  output/
  reports/
  issues/
  sources/

Current implementation writes:

• case-manifest.json
• extracted/facts.json
• issues/open-issues.json

Intake Flow

Current extract-docs supports:

• --create-case
• --case-label
• --facts-json <path>
• repeated --input-file <path>

Behavior:

• creates the full case directory layout when --create-case is used
• copies input documents into input/
• stores normalized user-statement facts in extracted/facts.json
• appends document registry entries to case-manifest.json
• stops with a structured issue and non-zero exit if a new fact conflicts with an existing stored fact

Output Contract

• JSON by default
• markdown available with --format markdown
• question supports:
  • --style conversation
  • --style memo
• question emits answered analysis output
• prepare emits a prepared return package summary
• export-efile-ready emits a draft e-file-ready payload
• review is still scaffolded
• fetch-year emits a downloaded manifest location and source count

Question Engine

Current question implementation:

• loads the cached tax-year corpus
• searches a small IRS-first topical rule set
• returns one canonical analysis object
• renders that analysis as:
  • conversational output
  • memo output
• marks questions outside the current topical rule set as requiring primary-law escalation

Current implemented topics:

• standard deduction
• Schedule C / sole proprietorship reporting trigger

Form Rendering

Current rendering path:

• official IRS PDFs from the cached tax-year corpus
• overlay rendering onto those official PDFs using reportlab + pypdf
• artifact manifest written to output/artifacts.json

Current rendered form support:

• Form 1040 overlay artifact generation

Current review rule:

• overlay-rendered artifacts are marked reviewRequired: true

Preparation Workflow

Current prepare implementation:

• loads case facts from extracted/facts.json
• normalizes them into the current supported 2025 federal return model
• computes the current supported 1040 subset
• resolves required forms for the current supported subset
• writes:
  • return/normalized-return.json
  • output/artifacts.json
  • reports/prepare-summary.json

Current supported calculation inputs:

• filingStatus
• wages
• taxableInterest
• businessIncome
• federalWithholding

E-file-ready Export

export-efile-ready writes:

• output/efile-ready.json

Current export behavior:

• draft-only
• includes required forms
• includes refund or balance due summary
• includes attachment manifest
• includes unresolved issues

Scope Rules

• U.S. federal individual returns only in v1
• official IRS artifacts are the target output for compiled forms
• conflicting facts must stop the workflow for user resolution

Authority Ranking

Current authority classes are ranked to preserve source hierarchy:

• IRS forms
• IRS instructions
• IRS publications
• IRS FAQs
• Internal Revenue Code
• Treasury regulations
• other primary authority

Later research and review flows should consume this ranking rather than inventing their own.