File Your Taxes Online Easy
File Your Taxes Online – Don’t Delay Your Refunds
It hasn’t been easy, but you finally gathered the necessary income tax forms to file your taxes online. However, you now begin to have second thoughts about this entire process that so many are raving about.
The prior year, your cousin who lives down the street, filed your tax returns for you, using some software program he bought at the local mall. You remember the large refunds that you were counting on to pay down some credit card bills, and how long you had to wait for the IRS check to arrive in the mail. As a matter of fact, it took over two months because your cousin had you file your taxes by paper copy to the IRS and your state.
Several of your friends spoke to you about the delay with paper returns and recommended that you file your taxes online the next time. You knew there had to be a better method of filing your taxes, so you decided to look into it. You found several options that were available for you to file your taxes online. And best of all, you could have your refunds deposited in your bank account in ten days or less.
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Even though you didn’t consider yourself to be proficient using some new and strange software program, this was truly a no brainer. Being able to file your taxes online and send them to the IRS and your state electronically meant that those large refunds would be in your checking account in a matter of days. You made up your mind quickly and said “paper is bad and e-file is good”.
So, if I can do it, you too can learn how to file your taxes online because it’s very, very easy. You’ve heard your friends say that it’s foolish to take a simple tax return to a professional tax preparer or even to buy a TurboTax or the H&R Block program and pay a high fee when you can do it yourself. Just so you can be sure, you dig out the copy of last year’s tax return.
You had filed a joint return with your wife and there was only one W-2 form from your job where you were employed as an auto mechanic. Than seemed pretty simple until you see that this year, there is another W-2, and it had taxes withheld for a second state for that part time job. Does this mean that I have to go to a tax preparer instead of being able to file your taxes online myself?
Oh boy, you said, now what do I do? You keep checking your records and see that there is one bank interest form and a form from the state for last year’s refund, and that is the only extra income that you have. You keep checking and see that you have your wife as a joint filer and your two children as your dependents.
Your son is a recent high school graduate and is 18 years of age. Your daughter, who has been reminding you that she will soon be able to get a driver’s permit, is 16 years old, and in the first year of high school. The next area that you look at is the itemized deductions on Schedule A, and it seems fairly easy. All you have listed on there are some church donations, and the real estate taxes and mortgage interest on your home. How hard can this be and you begin to feel a little more confident.
If You File Your Taxes Online – Is It Quicker?
You have the contributions receipt from your church plus the form from the bank listing the real estate taxes and mortgage interest paid. But some doubt enters in and you wonder if it wouldn’t be better to take the return to a professional tax preparer, rather than file your taxes online yourself, just to be on the safe side.
Since your cousin didn’t charge you to file your taxes online last year, you wonder what a professional tax preparer charges. One of your friends has a CPA do his returns so you decide to call him and get a quote. You explain to him how simple your return is with the Schedule A and two state returns because of the second W-2. The guy quickly gives you a quote of $375.00 for the job. Wow, you say, and thank him for his time.
After the shock wears off, you think some more and decide that it might be a good idea to file your taxes online yourself. You have a neighbor who files his taxes online, so you call him to get an idea of what it is like. Well, he is quite pleased and gives you the URL to the online tax filing site that he uses to file taxes online every year.
Can I Do Online Tax Filing Myself?
By this time, he has you all hyped up and you’re anxious to get home to give it a try. After a quick dinner, you go downstairs to your home office to turn your computer on and patiently wait for the desktop to appear. You type in the URL that you got from your neighbor, and arrive at the home page of a website called How To Manage Your Money. What an appropriate name you think and begin to read the page.
You read further down the page and the more you read, the more confident you are that you can do this. They even tell you that if your income is within the IRS guidelines, you will qualify for free tax filing online. WOW! Finally, you click on the link and are taken to the login page where you setup your credentials. Pretty simple so far. Right after you enter your personal information as requested, the program asks you to enter the W-2 and other tax form information. Very simple so far, anyone can do that. Then you come to a screen where there are several simple interview questions. These too are just common sense type questions.
Is It This Easy To File Your Taxes Online?
You answer the simple questions and in a flash, your tax return is finished and it suddenly appears on your computer screen for you to see and review. I can’t believe it, you say quite loudly. Your wife heard this and is quickly standing by your side wondering what happened. You begin to show her the results on the screen and point out how the online tax filing software made sure that you got $1,000.00 for the child tax credit for your daughter.
You review the other schedules and discover that they have been completed automatically from the information that you entered. More amazing, you see that tax returns were prepared for both states without any further work by you. Wow, your wife exclaims, this is the best way to file your taxes online.
She asks you, is it really that easy? Your only answer is, it sure is. If it’s that easy she says, then the cost must be pretty high, and don’t forget, we filed in two states! By this time, you’re really feeling confident and very pleased with yourself. You show her the low fee charged for filing, plus the free e file.
To complete the process to file your taxes online, you simply click the button to e-file and print copies of the returns. Just about ten days later, you are amazed once again, when you find out that your federal and state refunds are already deposited in your checking account.
This year, the family is using the refunds for a family vacation, and the money is in the bank. This scenario is an actual real life event as told by one of our clients who is now convinced that the only way to file taxes is to file your taxes online. We encourage you to do the same to see for yourself how to get fast refunds by filing your taxes online.
Gust Lenglet, Platinum Author
