Good news. It’s tax season…again. Seems like it happens practically every year, doesn’t it? Whether you’re preparing to owe the government a few bucks, you’re anticipating a nice return, or you’re ultimately expecting a neutral outcome, the fact of the matter is that taxes are rarely fun. They can be complicated and confusing and a little stressful. From gathering your documents and calculating your expenses to navigating the tangled web of rules, regulations, liabilities, credits, deductions, and penalties, there’s a lot to figure out.
That’s where a good tax preparation software program can come into play. The internet is home to countless tax preparation services, whose ultimate purpose is to guide you through the process of filing your taxes while helping you maximize your outcomes and avoid potentially costly mistakes. But there’s a lot riding on your taxes. So how can you be sure you’re using a reputable service with a strong track record for getting good outcomes on behalf of its users?
Well, we’ve done some of the legwork for you. We’ve scoured the web in search of tax preparation services that can help ease the process of filing for you this year. And full disclosure, this author has employed one or two of the tax preparation services in the past and the results have generally been positive (and considerably more affordable than consultation with a live human tax advisor).
Tax preparation software refers to a wide range of online services designed to help you e-file your federal and state taxes, usually in exchange for a modest fee. Most services offer a sliding fee scale based on the suite of services required by each user. But in the simplest terms, online tax preparation makes what was once an extremely obfuscating task a great deal easier for the average filer.
Of course, In the old days, doing your taxes by yourself involved a lot of hand-written forms, calculators, number crunching, and scrutinizing of the intricate rules applying to your unique situation. Whether that situation made you a 9-to-5 employee, a self-employed freelancer, a small business owner, an independent contractor with a tight crew of also independently contracted craftsmen, or a middle class family who just bought a house and started a college fund, you had to do it all by hand.