Some tax-prep money savers
PORTLAND, Ore. – If you're one of the 95 million Americans who filed your tax return electronically last year, you know that one benefit is a speedier refund check than if you filed by paper.
But did you know that you may also be able to file electronically for free? The Internal Revenue Service reports that anyone with an adjusted gross income less than $57,000 is eligible for its free electronic filing program.
The IRS program taps into all of the regular tax preparation software - from TurboTax's Freedom Edition to H&R Block's Free File - and gets those software companies to offer their service for free to those meeting the income requirements. All of the participating software companies can be found on one page at the IRS Web site: http://apps.irs.gov/app/freeFile/jsp/index.jsp?ck.
Just click your favorite software provider, and the free version calculates your information the same way the paid commercial tax software programs do.
if you're more of a traditional tax file, for the second year the IRS is offering a free form to fill out called the Free Fillable Form. The Free Fillable Form is not your typical tax software program, meaning it doesn't prompt or do the math for you.
So you have to be able to crunch the numbers on your own to complete it.
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