Standard Deduction or Itemized Deduction?

First of all what are tax deductions? They are dollar amounts that tax payers subtract from their adjusted gross income in order to arrive at the amount of their taxable income. Needless to say the lower your taxable income is, the lesser the amount of taxes you will have due. When its time to file your tax returns you will have to decide between taking the standard deduction or to file itemized deductions. Which way you decide depends on a number of factors but you have to chose just one:

Tax Refund Loans – Costs & Alternatives

Tax refund loans, also known as refund anticipation loans or fast tax loans, can be a tempting option if you’re in need of money and expecting an IRS refund.  However, these tax refund loans can be a very expensive option due to the fees and interest charges that typically accompany them.
Refund Anticipation Loans
The official name of [...]

Flexible Spending Account Deadline

The flexible spending account deadline is one that you don’t want to miss if you still have funds from last year in your FSA.  As you’re probably well aware, you lose any money left in your flexible spending account that’s not spent by the FSA deadline.
Flexible Spending Account Grace Period
A few years ago the IRS [...]

H&R Block at Home Software

H&R Block at Home is some of the best tax software available for consumers who want to prepare their own taxes.  I was able to ask Julie Markey, a Vice President at H&R Block, some questions about the software via email.  Julie’s the managing director of digital tax solutions so she’s very familiar with the software’s capabilities [...]

Medical Expenses & Income Tax Deductions

Your medical expenses can be income tax deductions depending on how you file your taxes and how high your medical bills are. We all know that health care costs just keep going up, lets take a look at how you might be able to get tax deductions for these expenses.
Tax Deduction Requirements
In order to be [...]

Tax Refund Status

How can you check on your IRS tax refund after you’ve filed your taxes and are waiting to get money back?  Below is a tax refund schedule from TaxACT that shows an approximation of when your refund check should be mailed or direct deposit put into your bank account based on the date range that [...]

Online Tax Software Success

Online tax software is becoming more popular each year for people looking to file their federal income tax returns on their own.  Compete, a company that measures website visitors across the Internet, released a report this month that showed 11.5% more consumers visting the category of “Accountancy and Tax Service” sites than the previous year.
All [...]

Turbo Tax Review

Turbo Tax Review
I’ve used Intuit’s TurboTax to file my income taxes for the last five years. During that time, I’ve used a few different versions including the desktop and online versions of the software. I like the online version the best, and currently use the TurboTax Home and Business to handle my business filing needs. [...]

2010 Federal Tax Brackets

The time for preparing for tax season is upon us. As you gather necessary financial documents, you may also need to inquire as to which Federal Tax Bracket to file within. Most individuals and families are preparing their 2009 income tax returns, but many businesses, investors, and others are already preparing numbers and documents in order to file 2010 Federal Tax Returns in 2011.

TurboTax Winners!

Congrats to the winners of the free Turbo Tax giveaway that I announced over the weekend!
The announcement was at the bottom of the post that looked at the common income tax problems that contest entrants experienced.  I haven’t heard back from all the winners so in case you missed it, I’m posting it again here with [...]

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