File Taxes Online
The IRS expects more than 100 million taxpayers to file their taxes online for the 2009 tax year. Here are some tips to make e-filing as easy as possible.
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File your taxes free with the help of Walmart, United Way and others
Great news for anyone who makes under $58,000. You'll be able to file your taxes for free, including free tax prep, thanks to a $4 million grant from the Walmart Foundation to United Way Worldwide, One Economy and the National Disability Institute. This is the second year for the free tax prep program, which allows Americans who meet the criteria to get free assistance at community locations and online at Myfreetaxes.com.According to the Walmart Foundation, last year's program provided more than 650,000 people with tax prep, and helped them save over $950 Million in tax preparation fees, refunds and tax credits.
SnapTax: File your taxes with your iPhone
In science fiction books and movies, the phone of the future was often portrayed as being able to help users buy stuff, find a date, and even do taxes. So far, they've gotten the dating and buying stuff right and now, if you live in California, you can file your taxes on your phone.
Intuit, the makers of TurboTax, will be releasing a new iPhone application for residents of California which will let them file their state and local taxes on their iPhone. The app isn't available yet but should be released by the end of the month.
The SnapTax app allows you to take a picture of your W-2, which the app can read and pull out the important information in order to auto-populate the correct fields in SnapTax.
After a few questions, you'll see how big of a refund you are getting and can preview the 1040EZ for any errors. If you are satisfied with it you can press file and you're done with taxes for the year.
Filing a return online expected by 100 million taxpayers
On Jan. 15, 2010, IRS e-file officially opened for business for the tax season. The IRS expects more than 100 million individual taxpayers to file their returns online in 2010 after banner years in 2008 and 2009. The hundreds of millions of tax returns filed over the past three years mark a dramatic increase from the 25,000 tax returns filed online in 1986, the first year the IRS accepted online tax returns (download IRS e-file history here).
More than one-third of those 100 million taxpayers will file their returns online by personal computer; the rest will use a professional tax preparer or free file at an IRS site. No matter how you choose to e-file this year, here are some tips to make it as easy as possible:
IRS shows a simple way to avoid income tax audit
The tax gods smiled on me when they made me the younger brother of a CPA -- a guy who saved my butt countless times back in the day when I didn't know a tax return from toilet paper. Thus I've always had the advantage of instant, free tax advice when I need it.Yet no matter how many times I asked Brother Joe about beating the IRS audit system, he was always pretty cautious, and 100 percent truthful. "There's no fool-proof way to do it," he'd tell me.
But now comes news from the most unlikely of sources -- the IRS itself -- that your chances of being audited are 1 in 100 if you follow one simple rule: Show an income under $200,000.
States and Feds go paperless to save at tax season
Money may not grow on trees -- but cutting back on paper sure saves money. At least that's what a number of states are saying this year.This year, states are encouraging the use of electronic filing for individual income tax returns by cutting back on the distribution of printed income tax forms in an effort to save money. While some taxpayers may complain, it's a decision that makes sense.
Consider these national statistics: last year, the IRS processed more than 140 million individual income tax returns. Two out of three of those returns were filed electronically.
E-filing tips that should save time, if not money
If the trend in e-filing continues, the IRS expects more than 100 million individual taxpayers to file their tax returns electronically for the 2009 tax year. More than one-third of those taxpayers will file by personal computer; the remainder will use a professional tax preparer or free file at an IRS site. No matter how you choose to e-file this year, following are some tips to make it as easy as possible.
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