How to File Taxes Online
January 26, 2009 by admin
Filed under Business & Finance
If you’ve never had to file your own taxes or if you’re used to letting the folks with the big green sign take care of it, this is your year to shine. Allowing someone to completely your taxes is a waste of money in most cases – especially if you don’t own a home. And if this is your first year to pay taxes – congratulations, we wish you a happy refund.
Filing your taxes online is actually the last step in your tax preparation process. If numbers scare you, don’t worry – preparing and filing your own taxes is as simple as filing in the blanks in most cases. Unless you have a special circumstance such as being a single mother or you own your own home and have sizable investments, filing your taxes is as simple as taking numbers off your W-2, answering simple questions and clicking a button.
Get Your Tax Paperwork in Order
Your first step is to get your paperwork in order. You’ll need any W-2s from employers and possibly some 1099s which are for money earned that wasn’t part of a salary. You’ll also need your bank statements if you earned interest in your accounts and any student loan documents that show the interest you paid on the loans.
File Taxes Online
If you’re going to file your taxes online, you might as well fill out the forms online, too. TurboTax.com is the most well-known tax filing software, but there are others as well. Select the software for your situation, most likely the free 1040EZ and get started.
File Your Taxes Online
When you’ve filled out all of the forms, simply follow the instructions to file your tax return online. You don’t need to send in copies of your W-2s and other documents. Instead, put everything you used to complete the form into a folder and label it. Don’t throw it away, but place it in a file cabinet to store for five or ten years. Treat every year’s taxes in the same way. If you file it away immediately, you know everything is together should you ever be asked to clarify your returns.
Easy Step By Step
- Gather your information together
- Use the free tax filing software to complete your tax return
- Find free online tax filing services to send your return to the government
- Wait a few days to have your refund delivered to your bank account!
Warnings, Advice, and Suggestions
Trust the government enough to give them your bank deposit information rather than waiting for a check. You’ll have your money much faster and you don’t have to worry about the government learning your secrets. They would get the information if they needed it anyhow.
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How to Do Your Own Taxes
October 16, 2008 by admin
Filed under Business & Finance
If you’re just starting in the world of finance, it can be easy to turn to the “experts” to do your taxes for you. But when you realize just how simple it is to do your own taxes using tax preparation software, you’ll be thrilled to save the fees of the tax pros who are more than happy to fill out a simple form on your behalf – after all, it takes them no more time than it would take you to do it yourself.
Tax Basics
If you have a salary and don’t own your own home, it’s unlikely that you have enough stock sales or other income and expenses to justify doing a full-fledged tax return. Consider this – if you are a typical employee, you get a W-2 in February that tells you how much you made for the year. You might also get bank statements letting you know how much interest was paid on your savings. If these are the only two things you get at tax time, you’re in a great position to use the standard deduction.
For the tax year 2008, the standard deduction is $5450 for a single filer and $10,900 for the married couple filing jointly. When you offset the deduction with the amount of taxes you’ve already paid, you’ll likely wind up with a refund. Without a home or other complicated assets, you are almost certainly better off taking the standard deduction than itemizing your deductions. (Once you own a home, however, you often are better off itemizing as the interest on your mortgage is deductible among many other things.)
Filing Taxes
Unless you are already tax savvy (and therefore not reading this article), you shouldn’t bother with forms provided by the IRS. Instead, rely on tax preparation software such as Turbotax, which you can now use online, and a tax forum for advice and instructions. So long as you are planning to take the standard deduction, the process is simple. In fact, it’s exactly what the tax prep folks use when they ask you questions and use your W-2 on their little computers.
- Create an account with standard tax preparation software such as TurboTax
- Fill in your personal information.
- For income, use your employer’s W-2 to fill out the corresponding boxes. Your W-2 form will be numbered the same way as the fields you use on the computer.
- Work through the process answering all other questions including any children or special situations that would allow you to take special tax credits.
- When you have the option, select “Take Standard Deduction.”
- Finish the software application going step-by-step, it’s highly unlikely you’ll find a question that you don’t know the answer to if you’re taking the standard deduction. If so, consult a forum or help through the software for clarification.
- File your taxes online using the software.
- Find good tax preparation software to use.
- Register an account and gather your information including your W-2 for the year.
- Follow the steps in the tax software to complete your tax return
- File electronically
If you are taking the standard deduction, it will only take you thirty minutes or less to complete your taxes, including filing. The hardest part might be finding the bank account numbers to give the government so that your refund can be deposited into your account in a matter of days – without paying anything to a middleman.
Easy Step By Step
Warnings, Advice, and Suggestions
Avoid guessing or randomly filling in fields when you’re doing your own taxes – you might be held accountable for a big mistake by the IRS. Instead, if you come to something you don’t understand, take a few minutes to read the help message provided by the software. In most cases, the messages should clear up any confusion.
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