“Free File” Your Taxes Through the IRS Website
If your adjusted gross income in 2008 was less than $56,000, you can use Free File at the IRS website to prepare and file your federal tax return.
For those of you filing the 1040EZ only, but making over $56,000, Turbo Tax offers free software. They also offer free electronic filing (e-file) if you need to purchase one of their other software packages. The Deluxe meets most people’s needs, but read the fine print to be sure. And know up front that if you then file your state taxes through them they’ll sock you with a filing fee. It’s still the easiest way to do it.
Filing your taxes can be a cumbersome, expensive, and sometimes mystifying task. If you’re having someone else do it for you (cha- ching! BIG dollars), or are currently doing it on paper on your own, I would encourage you to check out the latest in Tax Software. I’m only personally familiar with Turbo Tax, but have found that it takes much of the pain out of filing both my federal and state return. And since Pam and I are not legally married in the USA, just in Massachusetts, tax time gets quite complicated! There were no bruises last year, but I recall us not speaking for a day or two!
photo credit: PicApp
Depending on your income, you may want to look for a free non-profit tax service in your area. I volunteer for an organization called Community Tax Centers (in Austin, Texas) but organizations like this are affiliated with the IRS all over the country. At our centers we will prepare and e-file your taxes for free if you make under $25,000 and are single or $50,000 and married. The limits go up if you have any dependents. We also do taxes for free for city and county employees including transit employees. At our center, we also prepare ITIN applications.
TaxAct http://www.taxact.com/ offers free online e-filing for federal taxes, regardless of your income level and which form you use. I’ve used them the last few years, and been pretty happy with it.
I will second TaxAct, although I prefer the stand alone version to the online filing. If that does not matter to you, they had a promo running just a couple of days ago for federal, state, and efile all just for $11.60 or something like that. Search fatwallet finance forum if you are interested. I decided to pass on that since I do not feel like storing all my tax info on their servers.
A couple of years ago Allison wrote a helpful post as part our our Tax Guide about how to self-prepare your taxes… some readers might want to check it out.