Thursday, January 15, 2009

Frugal Friday - free tax preparation if you qualify

For today's Frugal Friday I wanted to talk about taxes. Ugh. For the last few years I start preparing my taxes by visiting the IRS' web site. Quite shocking isn't it! :) The IRS puts together a Free File web site that lists tax providers and their stipulations for filing your taxes for free. The web site begins Fri Jan 16 so if you go now (late Thur) you won't see much.

Year before last we filed our federal taxes with TurboTax for free. Last year we didn't qualify and used H&R Block's free program. The companies have gotten smart and usually give you a no frills level program but even if you start there it is usually cheaper to upgrade than if you started on the main page of the company's web site.

The IRS web site also lists free state filing options. Usually, we just go to our state's web site and file from there. Hope this helps someone in this tax season!

For other frugal hints, visit Crystal at Frugal Friday.