it amazes me honestly how many people end up intimidated by taxes, maybe its the fear of doing something wrong on your taxes? i have no clue. since as far back as i can remember i have been doing my own taxes and over the years doing family members taxes and friends as well.. always eager to help those who need it!
it wasnt until about oh geesh 3 or 4 years ago that i started e-file'n them. now i admit that even though i sat down and did my own taxes i would still rush out the door to H&R block and take our taxes there to get the refund quicker.. but as time went on i learned that when i e-file and even better yet, free file, i can not only get the same refund i always have .. but i get all of it, no more spending a few hundred to h&r block for merely just typing in a few numbers on a computer and agreeing with what i already had written down.
if you havent heard of free file i HIGHLY recommend it to everyone. my personal favorite is to use turbo tax freedom edition. of course to free file there are some restrictions, income, age, etc.. but to get the best list of the free file'n sites simply head over to the irs web site and on the right of your screen you will see where it says *free file* and from there you can find not only sites where you can E-file your returns (getting your return back to you in about 2 weeks time if direct deposited) but you can also see that they are all the IRS trusted and suggested sites.
From using the Turbo Tax one, i also get to do my state for free (how awesome is that) and although your state has to be a qualifying one to get it for free, if you have to pay to have the state side of it done, the amount you pay for that is far less than you would pay to have say H&R block do it for you.
Ive used a few of their different sites, mainly because someone might not have qualified for the same one that i use, and they are all for the most part pretty easy and self explainable as you go along filing each different section.
while im an odd one and actually look forward to tax time and crunching the numbers in my favor and seeing how it comes out in the end, even someone who isnt such a goober can easily do it. so my suggestion before your dropping a few hundred of your return in H&R blocks pocket or some other tax persons pocket, give it a try and see what you think, you might be surprised.
and for those of you that think *well H&H block does so great at getting me all they can in a return* um not really, they do the same thing that you yourself can do, they dont have a magic wand that says *well since you came here, i can take and give you an additional $500 from the IRS hows that sound?* they do the same things that anyone else does, the same things that you yourself can do. and with the free file stuff, you dont even need to know all the new tax changes, just go threw each part and answer all the questions and your good to go!
