Tax Time - Free Online Filing

Free File Home - Your Link to Free Online Filing

The Infernal Revenue Service, in it's infinite generosity of spirit, still provides an online filing service for those of us who live online.

If you have an adjusted gross income of $50,000 or less, you can take advantage of this service and get your return posted almost immediately.

I used it last year, and as soon as I find my W2 forms I'll use it again this year.

This is a nice surprise for me, as I had heard that you were no longer permitted to file by phone (my previous favorite way of avoiding all that pencil work.)

As I had mentioned a couple of weeks ago, it's a good idea to grab a tax booklet and estimate your return before you commit to the numbers they calculate for you. My experience last year is good ... I actually got a few more dollars more back than I would have expected. It wasn't much but it was more than I spend for a pound of Vihta Vourhi N-350.

your mileage may vary

UPDATE:

I've finished my taxes.

I chose TurboTax as my vendor, and I was delighted that I didn't have to buy or install any software. The entire tax return took about a half hour.

Because I was on a roll, and it was so easy, I paid them another $24.95 to also complete my state taxes. (That's how they make their money out of it ... the federal tax return was, as advertised, free.) I don't begrudge them the expense, because I had already entered most of the information so continuing with the 'state tax' part of the process was fairly painless. Besides, back in the days when I use to take my taxes to an accountant, I paid a lot more than that to have my taxes done.

Another option was to create an electronic signature, or to print out a hardcopy and sign it, then snail-mail that to the tax people. I chose to physically sign the return, so I will still have to spend another $0.39 for each return. But it's easy to do, and my refunds will be electronically deposited to my bank account.

I followed my own advice and estimated what my refund should be. TurboTax came up with the same numbers. Last year I used another vendor (TaxNet) and they got the state tax return very wrong because they miscalculated the appropriate state tax due.

As is true with almost everything, there IS a catch: my tax return is not ready to actually file until it has been reviewed and accepted by the IRS. That reportedly takes 24 to 48 hours, after which time I have to sign in again and complete the return. This came as no surprise to me, because the same thing happened last year. I expect to receive an email either tomorrow or the next day, with a link allowing me to log in *(you have to register for the service - no charge for that) and complete the return.

A pleasant surprise was that TurboTax added a step where they (supposedly) reviewed to return to check for common errors which might delay acceptance of the return, or even case the IRS to audit my return. This took no more than a few seconds, and the option was free.

My guess is that it checked for such errors as entering different income amounts for state and federal, or for "wages" (box 1) and "social security wages" (box 3) and "medicare wages and tips" (box 5).

I saved all of my personal information, and since I'm much more pleased with the TurboTax service than I was with the Tax Net, I may use it again next year.