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I have a confession – I love to do our taxes. I always start to work on them as soon as my husband brings his last paystub home and most years I am ready to hit the e file button long before the official forms arrive from employers. (Don’t worry I wait till they are here).
If you have thought about doing your own return:
1. You can always attempt to do them for free, so if things get very muddled and you still need help you won’t have spent anything. You do your return online for free and you only pay to submit it!
2. It really is very easy! (Mind you we don’t have 2 homes, off shore accounts etc.)
The Best Savings I can find on Turbo Tax online – 25% off:
1. Go to this page at Fidelity
2. Click on “Start or Continue your return with Turbo Tax”
3. Click whether or not you are a Fidelity customer (you don’t have to be to get the discount to just answer honestly).
4. It will then take you to the Turbo Tax site where you get 25% off all the prices – even 25% off the state e file (another $26 dollars)
We are actually customers of Fidelity and have used this discount for a few years now. It is the only company that offers 25% off all the products.
**If by chance you have a State Farm Banking account you can get Turbo Tax FREE (the first 25,000 to register to use it). Note – this is for banking customers only.**
Why Turbo Tax?
I know there are a lot of Tax prep programs out. We have used a few other ones. I am mentioning Turbo Tax mostly because it is the easiest to do all by yourself. It actually treats you like you are stupid sometimes so that you can’t mess up.
If you want to use another program (because some are a lot cheaper). Here is a tip: Do your taxes twice! We used Taxact one year and it was not as easy, I was a little concerned that I had missed things so… I went to Turbo tax entered everything there (for FREE) made sure the numbers matched TaxActs numbers and then went ahead and filed with the TaxAct. You won’t pay anything to Turbo tax and you have the peace of mind that the numbers matched!!
Price Comparison:
Turbo Tax Deluxe – $24 for Federal another $26 for State (e files are included in the prices)
Tax Cut (H&R Block online) – $34 for Federal another $20 for State (e files included)
TaxAct Deluxe – $7.95 another $9.95 for State (e files are included)
Turbo Tax and TaxAct are both free to enter your information and you only pay if you submit it. Tax Cut you have to pay for the program up front.
One more thing: If you have a simple tax retun and make less than a certain amount you might be eligible for the IRS Free file. Turbo Tax is part of the program and you can get more information on their site. There are other software groups that are part of it, but this version is rated the best.
