How To Do Your Taxes For Free

It's almost the end of November, and the end of the year. If you're like me, and don't like to proscrastinate and wait around until April 15th, you're already thinking about taxes. It's always amazing to me to see the news reports of people lined up outside post offices at five minutes to midnight to mail their taxes. Hopefully, none of my readers are this lackadaisical about their finances! For me, the sooner I file, the sooner I can get that tax refund check, and the sooner I can invest it.

There are many tax return preparation software programs available on the market, and for the small cost of purchasing the program, you can save yourself tons of time and stress. Most are intuitive and, in a matter of a few hours, automatically complete your return for you by asking you a series of plain-language questions. You can forget about trying to decipher the tax code yourself, and forget about dealing with that amateur accountant from those porta-booths in the mall. Most software programs even allow you to electonically sign and file your return with the IRS. What could be easier or better?

Well, I'll tell you! How about FREE tax preparation software and filing? There are a small number of companies that offer this to eligible taxpayers (eligibility is usuallybased on income, complexity of the return you are filing, or military/veteran status). Using this service, you can effectively save money and time, increase the likelihood of an error-free return, and maybe get back a larger refund from Uncle Sam.

I-CAN! E-File will complete and file your return for you, in English or Spanish, once your combined household income is less than $50,000. TaxSlayer will do the same for you if you are a member of the military. There a a few others as well, with varying income or status eligibility requirements. The one I recommend, as I've used it in the past and liked it, is TurboTax.

Turbo Tax is probably the most well-known, widely-used tax software on the market. Their product is actually somewhat costly, but they have an initiative called the Tax Freedom Project that offers free online tax preparation and filing. It's been around since 1998, and has donated free services to millions of Americans over the years. If I qualified still, I'd use it in a heartbeat.

Finally, for full disclosure, I should mention that this article is a product/service review. I am not a direct seller or affiliate of any of the companies discussed in this article, and I have not received any compensation for promoting them. In fact, the products/services discussed are free, so there's no sale, no commission, no nothing! Just a big, fat refund check to you!