Death and Taxes
I did my taxes today. I was cruising around my employer’s web site when I found a link that would allow me to print my W-2. I printed that, cruised over to the IRS website, picked a company that provides free tax returns, used it, went over to the California Franchise Tax Board’s web site and used CalFile and viola in less than an hour I’m done.
Obviously I am enthusiastic about doing taxes because I nearly always get a refund though there was a moment of panic when I calculated that I owed $1500 to California. After a quick correction they owe me $58. Sweet!
In any case, since I’m sure there are a bunch of you, like me with one or two W-2’s and who make less than $50,000 and are getting some money back I thought I’d write a little primer.
You need this years W-2 and last years tax return form.
Click here for a list of all the firms that do free federal tax returns. Note that at some point, and probably several points, they are going to try to sell you extra services, you can just decline them. I chose HR Block because I used them last year and they were pretty easy. Fill in all you info. Make sure at the end to save or print off that PDF file. eFile and yer done. Now mine timed out the first time I tried to eFile (the last step) but all my info was saved up to that point so I just went back in and hit submit again and it went through fine.
For those of you living out of CA you are on you own (though I do recall MA having a similar online tax system). CA residents can use CalFile for free. You need to get a CSN first (takes five seconds). Calfile takes about 1/10th of the time as the federal form did.
As a matter of fact typing this up probably took long than it did to do my taxes.
Obviously I am enthusiastic about doing taxes because I nearly always get a refund though there was a moment of panic when I calculated that I owed $1500 to California. After a quick correction they owe me $58. Sweet!
In any case, since I’m sure there are a bunch of you, like me with one or two W-2’s and who make less than $50,000 and are getting some money back I thought I’d write a little primer.
You need this years W-2 and last years tax return form.
Click here for a list of all the firms that do free federal tax returns. Note that at some point, and probably several points, they are going to try to sell you extra services, you can just decline them. I chose HR Block because I used them last year and they were pretty easy. Fill in all you info. Make sure at the end to save or print off that PDF file. eFile and yer done. Now mine timed out the first time I tried to eFile (the last step) but all my info was saved up to that point so I just went back in and hit submit again and it went through fine.
For those of you living out of CA you are on you own (though I do recall MA having a similar online tax system). CA residents can use CalFile for free. You need to get a CSN first (takes five seconds). Calfile takes about 1/10th of the time as the federal form did.
As a matter of fact typing this up probably took long than it did to do my taxes.
posted by Yen at
10:44 AM
2 Comments:
Dude, do you contribute to an IRA, 401k or Keogh plan? If not, you totally should! The government gets less money and you can earn good returns on your cash.
By
travis, at 12:12 PM
I do contribute to a 401k but that money isn't taxed as income...I think. It doesn't matter, it so little at this point. I also have a pension plan but they don't touch that. I think this years refund (the federal one, not just the $58) is going into a IRA. I was planning on doin that with savings but instead I blew it on a Trip to Costa Rica.
By
Yen, at 12:36 PM
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