are there any Free Software tax programs that are kept up to date with tax codes? I would so prefer not to have a for-profit company handling my taxes.

I sort of do, except an open source / free software package isn’t allowed to efile. Only a closed vendor can.

I'm not wholly opposed to mailing off my returns; which software package are you referring to?

It's a piece of software I've developed that is not publicly released, but eventually will be and will be AGPL3.

A few other people have also written such software. One guy still maintains it and surprisingly wrote a whole IRS / 1040 library in C. Mine is more oriented towards business and employer related taxes, though, than personal / investment sort of tax forms (although it will do the latter).

Biggest weakness is it will only support 1 or 2 states because I don't have the resources to make an accurate system for all 50.