Last Minute Tax Filers - Calculate & File for Free Online!

It's getting late, and many of you haven't even thought about filing your Federal US tax return. Perhaps you have contemplated getting started and it's causing financial anxiety, or the ever-classic avoidance response. Maybe you don't feel like shelling out twenty bucks or more for a software package to get it done, you don't have or can't afford an accountant, and you wisely conclude that reading the instructions and filling out the forms the old fashioned way is not a wise choice. Well have no fear, for there is a way to do those taxes online for free, and this includes free e-filing!

First let me explain why filling out the 1040 form and its corresponding schedules by hand, reporting deductions, interest, capital gains, dividends, losses, etc., as you struggle through the instructions is not recommended. In it's habit of waiting until the last minute, the US congress did not decide to renew or add certain 'tax advantages' within the tax code and regulations before most of the forms were printed. If you have been filing your return sans computer for the past year or two, the form they sent you in December is already outdated, and filled with warnings along these lines. Many of the instructions basically say: "What we are telling you to do right here may be completely incorrect, or we may have left out a line or two. Good luck." Another more obvious reason is that the directions have become more detailed, cumbersome, convoluted and incomprehensible as the years fly by. While a hands-on approach may be a tradition for some and preferred by many, it sure is time-consuming and mistake prone.