The IRS is, believe it or not, one of the best online places to do your taxes. You have to be careful with your ".govs" and ".coms." "Irs.com" looks like an informational site, but it's really a front for an online tax service. Despite the official-looking building and bare-bones look, all clicks lead to the multi-tiered submission options that may get your taxes to the real IRS and make them a little money at the same time. I think the real IRS.gov site looks a bit better, and that's where you need to go to get real tax information from the government.
Every year, www.irs.gov gets better at explaining their rules and procedures in plain English. They have finally decided to start with the same assumption that the rest of us have, which is that preparing tax returns will be hard. Just like how they talk on the phone has gotten better, so has their website. It's made for regular people, not accountants, and it's a good place to start.
H&R Block is like an 800-pound gorilla when it comes to tax preparation. They have been running a storefront network for decades, and they recently bought Tax Cut, one of the two major tax preparation software programmes. Their website has a bunch of related articles that might be useful. Some of the topics are tax scams, higher education deductions, the alternative minimum tax, and other things that could take a long time to find. If you're lucky, they'll have already written about it, and their articles are well-written and professional. Aside from that, the site wants to sell its Tax Cut software and online versions. Www.hrblock.com
There are a lot of places to do your taxes online these days. Some of them will put you in touch with an accounting firm, and others will sell you software and send it to you. However, most of them will help you fill out the forms online. When you are done, you can send in your federal form online. Some of the online sites, but not all, also let you file your state tax return. At http://dir.yahoo.com/Business and Economy/Business to Business/Financial Services/Accounting/Firms/Tax Accounting/Return Preparation/Online Preparation and Electronic Filing, you can find a full list of all the services out there.
If the idea of putting all of your financial information on a website you don't know makes you nervous, it should. E-thieves know a good chance when they see one, and tax forms are a great way for them to steal your identity. Microsoft has a good page about this topic with lots of tips and links to help you stay safe while preparing your taxes online. http://www.microsoft.com/athome/security/privacy/taxes.mspx is a good place to look.
AARP has a programme to help people with their taxes. It is run by trained volunteers. This service is basically an old-fashioned face-to-face deal, like the kind you would make with an accountant. But it's free and it's used all over the country. You can go to http://www.aarp.org/money/taxaide/taxpreparation/ to find out how it works and where to find their help sites. They did tax returns for two million people last year.
Google has a great page about how to do your taxes. It has sections for things like online services, software packages, tax forms, and tax law. They then give a great list of specific sites with information on how to do taxes. There are some commercial sites on the list, but there are also specific IRS pages, sites with tax information for consumers, sites where consumers review online services, and sites where professionals give advice. http://www.google.com/Top/Home/Personal Finance/Tax Preparation/.
These are just a few places to start; it's always up to the individual: e-rendering to e-Caesar what is e- Caesar's.
