Online Tax Filing for Free

This year for the first time in about 5 years I did not purchase TurboTax to do my taxes. Why? Because this year I can file them online completely for free, and so can you! Just go to the IRS Web site and click on the link for Free File there. It then tells you which of the free services you can use. Some of them are free for everybody, and they just assume you will pay the extra $8-10 extra to file your state taxes through them too. However, since most state returns are pretty simple, you can just use the free federal on-line and do the state returns manually easily enough. If you feel uncertain sending all that information online, you can also grab federal tax preparation software completely free from TaxAct, which hopes you will at least e-file through them for $7.95 (or for free through the IRS link). In reality, paying $8-$10 to file both returns electronically is a pretty good deal, but I prefer going the completely cheap method myself.

Comments

Anonymous said…
I too filed for free for the first time in 5 years. I qualified for the free file because of my families pathetic income due to me now being a stay at home Mom. There are some perks for losing an income. Too many to list here. I have filed for 5 years using turbotax and it is completely safe and it doesn't make mistakes adding or subtracting. I live in WA State and we have no income tax, another plus.
1:33 PM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Trying out the L'Ecole Culinaire Presentation Room restaurant

Image
We had been seeing the ads for the restaurant at L'Ecole Culinaire and since we live so close by we thought we would try it out. We had always enjoyed dining out at cooking or hotel schools like the CHIC in Chicago and the Statler at Cornell where we went to college. Since we still love to go out and eat here in St. Louis , we ventured over to their restaurant on the first day they were open for lunch. The first thing we noticed is that they do not have much parking! They really need to let patrons know where they are supposed to park. The restaurant itself is small but very well attended. There was one fellow who kept straightening all the centerpieces and place settings on the tables, and we always saw one or two student workers milling about. The lunch menu was small and the choices did not appear overly "gourmet". The special of the day was a bison burger stuffed with cheese, and other choices picked by my group included a club sandwich, a "margherita" pi...
Read more

BMI & BMR Calculator (Body Mass Index and Basal Metabolic Rate)

Image
My wife has been researching type 2 diabetes and recently checked a book out of the library which included a body mass index (BMI) chart much like the one pictured here. Whereas it is fairly easy to follow, I, of course, think it must be converted to an online calculator! However, when I checked the Internet, there were already a billion of them so I had to make one that was different. So my lovely BMI BMR calculator accepts either inches or centimeters for your height and pounds or kilograms for your weight and calculates not only your BMI, but also your BMR (basal metabolic rate) which determines how many calories you should consume! So I made a spiffy "all in one" healthy body indicator calculator which not only determines how underweight or overweight you are, but also tells you how many calories you should consume to maintain or improve your ideal weight. 
Read more

Not all Frosted Window Films are the same!

Image
We live in an older home with a lot of issues and one of them concerns our back door to our patio from our sunroom. The door has double paned glass on it, but unfortunately the seal has broken so you can see moisture collect inside of it. We decided the easiest way to "remedy" the problem was to cover the window with some "frosted" film so we did not have to see the moisture condensing between the panes. But the question was, what film? There are a bunch of them available so we had to select something to try on the door. The first place we tried was our nearby Lowe's store which had a bunch of Gila brand film. We selected what seemed like the typical adhesive based door sized  film that cost about $25 after tax. We thought it could not be that hard to put up and look nice on our door. So one day my wife ran out and purchased it at Lowe's and we commenced to install it on our door window. We made our own soapy water solution and followed the directions...
Read more