Tax Halp

[eevilyounggirl]

Last year I was all "nya I paper filed" and it took approximately three eons for my return to arrive. I am finally taking a step. A big step. The e-file step

Comments

[tiamatlady]

I don't have free, but I do has CHEAP and good.

taxslayer.com

the software to prep is very good, although a bit dumbed down for us what gets it. Technically the Federal is "free" and you pay $9.95 for the state return, and you do all the info online. To DL the software it's more. It might actually give you some help with your part year resident return too. That might cost extra, I've never been in that situation. You might be at least able to do the Feds for free.

I help out my Ranger friend with his, and TaxSlayer doesn't charge for full time military, which I like a lot. So I've seen it in action every year. It's good, it's secure, it's easy to use.

I know you don't want to pay. I have no idea of the other services tho, but the IRS website will have a list of their authorized sites, and you can double check their rules to see if you qualify for free filing. Mostly tho, the sites want to charge for the state filing. Bastards.

(This was probably no help, since pay < free. :( Give me a poke if you have any questions, I might be

[tiamatlady]

heheheh - the Ranger giggled for a while when I told him which site I thought was best. He stopped laughing at the "free" part. I got a few more people turned on to it too. Same reaction all around "Is that a fake website? that sounds weird!"

it is really a crime what some places charge for efiling. You'd think it would be easier, and free!

[eevilyounggirl]

What about if you already did the taxes and just want to file them electronically? Is there some way to do that?

[happyelfling]

i just use turbotax, which is not free either, but it's soooo quick and easy that i don't even care. the first year it took a while to put everything in. ever since then though it has my info on file and doing taxes is very easy. i don't recall the exact cost, but i think it was like $10ish for federal and more for state, like the one above. if you have to paper-file WI anyway you might as well do IL. i don't know if this is true for others, but for me, my state return is so small i don't care if it takes forever to arrive.

[pixelene]

I second the taxslayer recommendation. I did that for the first time last year and would never go back to paper.

[djtatsu]

Turbo Tax is nice. Relatively inexpensive and you can opt to have it taken out of your return if you have one :) It is also super easy to do all you have to do is answer simple questions. This year I got 5k :)

[witchchild]

I do my calculations first on paper, to make sure I have everything. Then I file online via TurobTax (I think). The filing part is free and I've been gong that route for a few years now.

[eevilyounggirl]

Ooh ooh this is what I need. Do you use the .pdfs from irs.gov?

[witchchild]

Either that or pick up the form and book from the library, which is what I did this year. (I was already there and the box was right next to the copier I was using.) State taxes still send out a booklet and then you call in your numbers.

[tiamatlady]

Hmmmmmm. That could be using the override on the forms themselves. One of my CPAs uses the professional version of TT, which is pretty much exactly the same, except none of the stupid questions *lol* I just question it's effectiveness. But if you don't carry forward any info, or HAVE any carryforwards it should work fine.

Even _I_ don't do my taxes on paper anymore!!!! *grins* but then again, I have access to software. Asswhuppin software. *evil grin* (I can't efile or I'd offer to do for you. *frowns*)

[hex61]

I use an accountant... so I'm not much help here.

http://www.irs.gov/ has links on the left nav for freeFiling and eFiling. Have you tried those?

[eevilyounggirl]

I have, and last year I got like 75% of the way through a site that claimed to offer free filing, then stopped because they were like "oh btdubs, this'll cost you $30." I can check it again and see if it gets any better.