I know it’s not tax season, but wouldn’t it be great if it
was? Knowing you will get a check in the mail in a couple of weeks or deposited
to your bank account? If you don’t already, maybe you should consider filing
your taxes online. The trend of e-filing has taken off with great success. I
ran across an article from a couple of years ago on NBCNews.com where is talked
about how filing your taxes online is the new norm. It’s really easy and you
could even submit it on your phone, crazy right? The article also talks about how
secure the process is. You can check the progress of when you will get your tax
refund.
The IRS website also touched on how it’s much faster to file
since some of the programs such as TurboTax that offer to do the calculations for you. Another
cool feature is the audit protection tools that are said to be built in.
At the same time, it is important that we check the spyware
and antivirus setting on our computer as we can never be too careful when
submitting confidential information such as a social security number. Taxpayers
are of all ages young and old, so of course we still have the old school
generations who might prefer to do the hard copy, so the e-filing won’t necessarily
work for them. They might subscribe to thing they don’t need which will make
the process longer and inefficient.
At the end of the day if you know that you are not very
computer savvy or have a complicated case, you may be better off hiring a professional
to do your taxes, or at least consulting an actual person rather than a Q&A
section on the program you use.
Are you comfortable filing your own taxes with the help of certain programs like TurboTax? Or is this something you trust a professional taking care of?
http://www.trexglobal.com/property-management/rental-tax-deductions/other-real-estate-tips/property-managers-landlords-five-good-reasons-to-e-file-your-tax-return
http://www.ehow.com/info_7833033_benefits-disadvantages-filing-taxes-electronically.html
I am comfortable with filing my taxes online, especially because the software will calculate the amounts for you; all you have to do is enter the financial information. It's definitely faster and you can go to IRS.gov to track the progress of your tax refund. I remember several years ago when I had to call the IRS customer service line and had to wait on hold for a long time, just to get the status. I also enjoy the convenience of filing online, as oppose to scheduling an appointment for a tax preparer to file my taxes for me and charging me a fee.
ReplyDeleteI used to run a small one person LLC, and I filed my schedule C's online. I used Turbotax and loved how it walked me through my income, expenses, and possible deductions. Then, with the click of a mouse, I was able to file both state and federal returns instantly and expect a refund in just a few weeks. Even as an Accounting major, I couldn't imagine having to file using a hard copy. It's just so easy and convenient to file online, and once I filed it was then real easy to have my information transferred to FAFSA. I will most likely continue to file online, as I've never had a problem with security.
ReplyDeleteI have always completed my taxes online. I have used a couple of different sites like HRBlock and Turbotax, and all of them are fairly easy to follow. However, if I were a contractor without a W2 or if I owned my own business, I might be more inclined to have a professional do them.
ReplyDeleteI also have used HR Block and Turbotax to e-file my taxes. It makes it easy and convenient to file. My dad still hand writes his tax forms and mails them in which I think is insane but he is self-employed. If I were a contractor I would also probably go to a professional to file them just to make sure I did everything correctly.
DeleteI personally do not think I would like to do my taxes online. Like you said, having your social security number and other valuable private information running across the internet would scare me. I just feel like a hacker would set his eyes on something like this and if there was anyway he could get into a system like this he could mess with many peoples personal information. Even though I personally wouldn't do it this way it is very interesting to see where the world is going, everything will be online here in the next couple of years.
ReplyDeleteI LOVE that I can do my taxes online. Showing my age a bit here, but prior to Turbo Tax online, I used to DREAD sitting at the dining room table to do my taxes. Soooo many forms and pages and you have to duplicate so much information on all the state and federal forms. I feel like an advertisement, but with Turbo Tax, you enter your information once, and it duplicates everything for you. In fact, if you use it from year to year and stay at the same company, school, etc., it will even give you the information to automatically fill in address and federal/state identification information from last year. That way, you don't have to re-enter everything. I guess you could say this is a point for concern since they obviously retain your information, but I love that it's already all there. Just fill in the new numbers for last year and you're good to go!
ReplyDeleteI love e-filling my taxes. It makes the whole process so much easier and you're done so much faster! I did it once without turbo tax and hated the process and how long it took.
ReplyDeleteI do not like filling out taxes form online; so I have used Turbo-tax to e-file my taxes. It's not difficult to fill out the form. You can do step by step and you will end it quickly.
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