Some of you may be on the ball and have already filed your taxes. If so, GOOD FOR YOU!! :-) Give yourself a pat on the back! For the rest of us who haven't quite gotten that far yet, I thought I would pass along some cheaper alternatives for doing your taxes.
I suppose the most frugal way to file your taxes is to do them by hand and mail them in. However, some of us aren't good at that or don't like to do it that way, and prefer some help or at least some software to walk us through it. But do you have to spend $50 to buy TurboTax or TaxCut software? Isn't there a better way?
For years, we bought the TaxCut software. We would watch the sales ads for weeks, waiting for the best price. A few years ago, we found a more frugal alternative. For the past few years we have used TaxACT online. It walks you through questions, just like TaxCut does, so it is easy to do. You can e-file your federal taxes for FREE! There are no restrictions based on age or income. You can also do your state taxes, which is $13.95 and includes the cost of e-filing.
Another option I've heard about, but haven't used personally, is TaxSlayer. It looks like you can choose a $9.95 or $14.95 option, which includes federal and state e-filing.
If you have any questions, or if you have used either of these or another cheap alternative, leave a comment! Good luck on your taxes!
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Monday, February 16, 2009
Filing your Taxes for cheaper
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4 comments:
We've used TaxActOnline for 4 yrs, I think. One year we paid someone to do our taxes for us. It cost us about $100 to have it done. I went home and tried TaxAct and got the exact same outcome so I figured that I could do them from now on. Ever since we have used TaxAct and we highly recommend it!
I've used Taxslayer for years and love it. Did my federal and state this year for $9.95. Along the same line as AJ, I compared my refund to other software and the refund was the same.
The year we switched to TaxAct online, we also compared our taxes by doing it with TaxCut. TaxAct actually helped us save a little more money by clarifying a question.
Dan said:
"On the subject of filing your taxes, I have a couple tidbits. For Federal taxes I have used efile-express (www.efile-express.com) for four years now and it works well for filling out the forms and transimitting it to the IRS. the software can be downloaded free along with all the forms you plan to use. Like with all the software out there, the filing is "free" but you will be charged a "transmission Fee". But with efile-express it is only $7.00 instead of $12-$50. The software then tracks the status of your tax return and refund. You still need to read the IRS publications and rules for entering information and claiming expenses, etc. but the software is good at catching missing info and does the math for you even when using the various IRS forms (like Schedule A, B, C, D, etc.)
For Wisconsin tax returns you can go to the State Dept. of Revenue site and file electronically for free (in most cases). the address is http://www.dor.state.wi.us and click on efile icon. The software was revamped for 2008 to be more user friendly but you will need to have your completed Federal tax forms and they will need to be in electronic form so they can be attached to your state tax return before filing (sending.) There is no cost to send them to the Wisconsin Dept. of Revenue.
Dan"
Thanks Dan!
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