Toll Tracker
When each tollware component reaches its toll target, it opens under the Christian Open Source License. Track the progress here.
What is tollware?
Tollware is software with an expiration date on its price. You pay to use it, exactly like a toll road — but the toll road has a published finish line. Every dollar paid by every user counts toward one fixed, pre-announced total called the toll target. When the total paid reaches the target, the price immediately drops to $0 and the full source code is released to the public. From that moment on, the software is free and open source forever.
Three things are locked in writing at launch and cannot be changed afterward: the price per use, the toll target, and the open source license the code will ship under. If anything on that list moved later, users would have no way to know what they were actually paying toward — so we publicly commit to never moving any of it.
The lifecycle in three phases
- Pre-toll. Price is the launch price (e.g. $0.50/return). Every dollar of revenue is counted on the toll tracker below.
- Toll met. The instant the counter hits the target, the price for that component becomes $0 and the source is published.
- Post-toll. The compiled software is hosted for free download here on gideontax.com, and the source code is published on GitHub — both forever. Anyone — non-commercial or commercial — can use, fork, or build on it under the license.
What users get for paying
- A working product today, at a price that was locked in writing before they paid.
- A share in shrinking the price for everyone who comes later.
- A guaranteed exit to $0 and open source once the toll is met — not a vague promise “someday.”
Tollware vs. other models
- Freeware:free, but the source stays closed forever and you rely on the vendor's goodwill.
- Shareware: free trial, then pay forever, and the code never opens.
- SaaS: pay every month forever, and if the vendor disappears the software disappears with them.
- Tollware: pay until the toll is met, then the price becomes $0 and everyone gets the code.
Our tollware commitments
- The toll target is locked at launch and never raised.
- The price per use is locked at launch and never raised while pre-toll.
- The moment the toll is reached, we immediately do all of the following:
- drop the price per use to $0,
- publish the source code on GitHub under the Christian Open Source License,
- host the compiled software for free download here on gideontax.com, and
- explicitly welcome non-commercial and commercial adaptation, redistribution, forks, and derivative products — subject only to the license terms.
- No gating, no "enterprise tier" carve-out, no delay between hitting the toll and the release.
The 5-5-5 Model
Three buckets, $5M each. Total: $15M.
Individual federal income tax filings (Form 1040 and related schedules, extensions, and amendments).
Corporate federal income tax filings (Forms 1120, 1120-S, 1065, and related schedules).
Other federal taxes (excise, estate, gift, employment, etc.) and infrastructure components such as Gideon Transmitter.
Toll Roads
Individual paid components and their progress toward open source.
Gideon Transmitter
Other Federal Taxes & ComponentsForm 2290 e-file (Heavy Highway Vehicle Use Tax)
Other Federal Taxes & ComponentsForm 8849 e-file (Claim for Refund of Excise Taxes)
Other Federal Taxes & ComponentsFree components — pre-committed to open source
Some Gideon Tax components are free to use from day one, so they don't have a dollar toll. To keep the tollware promise honest without a money-based trigger, we pre-declare a deterministic trigger instead: these components open-source when both of the following have occurred, whichever comes later —
- one full filing season in production with no unresolved critical IRS reject regressions, and
- IRS approval of our request to open-source the relevant code.
When both conditions are met, the component is released on the same terms as any paid tollware component: source on GitHub under the Christian Open Source License, compiled software hosted free on gideontax.com, and both non-commercial and commercial adaptation explicitly welcomed.
Form 4868 — Individual Tax Extension
Live during the Feb 15 – Apr 15 filing window
Form 7004 — Business Tax Extension
Not yet launched
Form 8868 — Exempt Organization Extension
Not yet launched