Filing Your Taxes At-Home – It’s Easier Than You Think

Filing Your Taxes At-Home – It’s Easier Than You Think

Most customers aren’t aware of just how easy it is to learn how to do your own taxes online. Whether you are employed and have received your tax information or are self employed and have tracked your income and business expenses, you can be easily guided through the entire process of completing your taxes with programs like Turbotax 2013 and be done in less than an hour.

information hydrant
information hydrant (Photo credit: Will Lion)

What kind of information are you going to need to start?

First, you’re going to fill in your identifying information including your name and address and determine whether you are filing for taxes on a single or joint application. Using the information from the income for the previous year, you are prompted to fill in the information through a series of questions. The answers to the questions are imported to the tax form, making it simple for anyone to do their taxes at-home, without having accounting experience.

It’s unlikely that errors are going to be made through the forms, as you’re prompted to answer questions and the system is designed to pick up common errors that are made. In most cases, the information must be correct or in the correct order to go forward with the income tax return.

Once the questions are completed, the report will be generated and you have the option to print the tax forms at-home or file the forms electronically.

Filing your taxes at-home is simple to do and can save you hundreds of dollars every single year.

IRS Apologizes To Conservative Groups

IRS Apologizes To Conservative Groups

The Internal Revenue Service apologized to conservative groups for targeting them inappropriately.  Around the time of the 2012 election, the IRS flagged many conservative organizations to verify their tax status to see if they were an exempt organization.

English: Anonymous Says: "Help Revoke Tax...
English: Anonymous Says: “Help Revoke Tax Exempt Status” (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Initially, it was thought that only groups with “patriot” or “tea party” in their names were targeted, but many other conservative groups were targeted by the IRS.  When the conservative organizations filed for tax-exempt status, they were singled out for additional reviews.

The attack was blamed on workers in an IRS office in Cincinnati, but now officials say the fault may be at a higher office.

During the 2012 presidential election, conservative groups began to complain about being harassed about their tax exempt status.  The IRS asked them several questions about their tax filing status, which delayed their tax exempt status.

The head of the IRS division in charge of assigning tax exempt status, Lois Lerner, claims that what happened was inappropriate.  She says there was a large number of organizations filing for tax exempt status after a hallmark 2010 Supreme Court decision.  The court decision allowed labor unions and corporations to raise and spend high amount of money, and they could register as a tax exempt if they were not political organizations.

No one knows if any White House officials knew about the IRS targeting conservative groups.  It also is not clear if the Treasury Department knew what was happening.

The White House is calling for a formal investigation.  Those found at fault will be disciplined as needed.  Lerner claims that she did not inform the White House what was happening.

Tax Carnival Ecstasy – May 9, 2013

Online Investing?
Online Investing? (Photo credit: Monkey Mash Button)

Welcome to the May 9, 2013 edition of Tax Carnival Ecstasy. We begin with a post from James Powell on credit and benefit changes for 2013 that is quite interesting. Bill Smith looks at how TurboTax has changed in the current year. And finally John Schmoll has a number of online brokers that he likes to use. Hope you enjoy all the articles, bookmark, share on your social sites, and come back real soon for more tax topics.

credits

James Powell presents Tax Credits and Benefits Changes 2013 – How They Will Affect You : Tax Credits posted at Tax Credits, saying, “This post will look at how the changes in tax credits will affect you in 2013.”

filing

Bill Smith presents Innovations For Turbo Tax 2013 posted at 2013 Taxes, saying, “Professional accounting can help business owners save time and resources, and the Turbo Tax 2013 CPA Select edition by Intuit may be the ideal solution for tax filing season.”

retirement

Jebelle presents LIFE is what you make it: HEALTH is WEALTH posted at LIFE is what you make it, saying, “earn even retired”

John Schmoll presents Online Brokerages I Use: OptionsHouse Review posted at Frugal Rules, saying, “There are many online brokerages to use as you look to invest in the stock market. The good ones are there to meet your needs and help make sure you’re doing what you can to be investing for things like retirement.”

tax law

Bill Smith presents Senate Bill On Internet Taxes Passes First Hurdle posted at FastSwings, saying, “Recently, the United States Senate passed a bill concerning Internet tax collection.”

taxes

Bill Smith presents Estimate Your Tax Refund With The Free TurboTax Taxcaster posted at 2013 Taxes, saying, “Tax time is drawing near and like most other Americans, you need to file and prepare your taxes to avoid penalties and late fees from the Internal Revenue Service.”

tips

Bill Smith presents The Benefits Of TurboTax 2013 posted at 2013 Taxes, saying, “When you are planning to file your income tax return, you want simplicity, accuracy, and options. You will have these benefits and more with TurboTax 2013.”

That concludes this edition. Submit your blog article to the next edition of tax carnival ecstasy using our carnival submission form. Past posts and future hosts can be found on our blog carnival index page.

More Sharing ServicesShare | Share on facebook Share on myspace Share on google Share on twitter

Technorati tags: tax carnival ecstasy, blog carnival.

 

Do Your Taxes Online This Year

Do Your Taxes Online This Year

When you do your taxes, do you usually get all of the paperwork and fill it out manually? Instead of doing this, perhaps you go to a local CPA and pay them to do your taxes for you, cutting into your return dramatically. If you have been using either one of these two tactics, you need to know that there is a better way with online programs like TurboTax 2013.

Death & Taxes (film)
Death & Taxes (film) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Many of the online programs are actually free, so you just have to create an account in order to work on your taxes. This allows you to save your information to the server. If you need to log in later to finish the job, it is easy to do so. You do not have to worry about security when you do your taxes since programs like TurboTax 2013 and the various free programs use encryption software to protect you.

The programs make life easy for you while you do your taxes by walking you through the process. Systems like TurboTax 2013 will ask you questions that you can answer, rather than just giving you a box and a sentence of legal writing to tell you what to do. These questions are straightforward and easy to understand. The program then takes the information and puts it into the correct boxes so that you do not have to do the work of figuring out what goes where.

When filling in information from W2s or 1099s while you do your taxes with TurboTax 2013 or a free program, the program may just tell you to fill in the numbers from the corresponding boxes. You do not need to know exactly what the box means or what all of the other, empty boxes are for. The program will simply tell you what information that it needs. You will write it down, and then you will move on to the next step. This makes it possible to do your taxes on your own even if you have never studied tax law or accounting.

One of the best things about deciding to do your taxes with an online program like TurboTax 2013 is that you can often e-file when you get done. You do not have to print anything out, though it is a good idea to save PDF files for your records. You do not have to write any checks, buy any stamps, or put anything in the mail. You just have to provide the information for your bank account, including the bank account number and the routing number, and then your return will be sent to you automatically. This all means that you can instantly and easily file your taxes, even at the last minute.

Tax Return Forms And Filing IRS Taxes

Tax Return Forms And Filing IRS Taxes

Tax time can be an incredibly hectic time for every individual of taxing age in the United States and other countries. There are forms aplenty for every type of deduction, job, withholding, and pay out and understanding some of the basics is the best way to get your taxes off to the right start. Using a system like TurboTax 2013 can be helpful, but a working knowledge of what tax return forms to fill out is still necessary to get the maximum refund.

Paying taxes is required for both citizens and...
Paying taxes is required for both citizens and non-citizens. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The first and most common forms are the 1040 and the 1040 EZ. The 1040 is the basic form that most tax payers use to complete their income taxes. These forms cover anything from income, taxes withheld, charitable donations, scholarships and grants, life insurance, gambling proceeds, child support, and more. This form was designed to be the blanket form for most tax payers to help speed up and simplify the process. This is the form that most are going to be working from when filing taxes and as such it is important to be well versed in the 1040. The 1040 EZ is a simplified version of the 1040 that is often used by workers that are either under the age of 18 or that do not have any dependents or households to claim. This form has basic information like income, taxes withheld, and any untaxed income that workers may have gotten over the course of the year.

A 1040 Schedule A is an individual tax return that has a list for itemized deductions. These deductions can be any range of things from medical bills, to work expenses, to charitable donations, and many more. If filers are at all unsure of what deductions they can count it is important that they check with a tax professional. Schedule B is a form that covers the interest on bank accounts and ordinary dividends. This form is generally only needed for those that have investments. Schedule C is profit or loss from businesses that are personally owned and will likely not be needed for all of those individuals filing. Schedule D is capital gains and losses in any investing or financial ventures that filers have partaken in over the course of the year. This form is again not necessary for every individual filing. The Last Schedule is Schedule E, this is for supplemental income or loss that was incurred through the course of the year. Most tax services will include Schedules A through E in the typical filing.

Form 1099 is for income from an employer that was not taxed at the time of payment, a 2848 is for those that are using their power of attorney to file for another individual, form 2553 is for those that are filing for a small business or corporation, and form 1065 is for married or partnered couples that are filing a joint return. A complete list of forms is available on the IRS website with brief descriptions of the function of each. If at any time it becomes difficult to complete your tax return or to understand what is being filled out, it may be necessary to talk to a tax professional.

FreeTaxUSA- Prepare your Taxes Yourself

<img src=”https://2011taxes.org/”” width=”1″ height=”1″ border=”0″ />

There are several tax preparation programs available online.  Let’s begin with a very simple and a detailed review.

Anyone can benefit a lot from tax return software, as they are:

  • Simple to fill in and submit the correct tax application;
  • Help in attaining bigger refunds;
  • Make simpler deduction in medical expenses;
  • Displays your present refund amount;
  • Even though you have changed the work, these services help you with right tax application.

All these online tax preparation services have easy to use systems, modern interface, best knowledge base as well as live support if in case you have more questions or problems filling out tax application.

Here are 3 most popular and top selling services: 24 Hour Tax, FreeTaxUSA, and without any doubt TurboTax. All these services might not seem familiar to you, but they have helped million of people across the world in getting their tax refunds in very easy and fast way. It’s best for both personal as well as small business taxation.

But the question is about the pricing; again you don’t have to worry as it is really cheap. Mostly, each one of these services has altogether different pricing packages, beginning from Basic and going up to different Professional plans. Usually subscription depends on monthly or annual payments. In few cases, for instance Turbo tax, you can buy it as tax audit software by giving onetime fee.

Now how to begin with getting fast tax refunds? Here are few steps for you:

  • Check out all the three services, compare their prices and find out the most suitable plan for you.
  • Subscribe with the service; it is always better to pay yearly, usually it is much cheaper than those with monthly payments.
  • Fill in the tax application and submit it using your chosen service
  • Systems will provide you guidance in terms and conditions for receiving the refund.