For most of us, when we hear word – “TAXES” – a resentful feeling suddenly comes to our minds and we tend to associate it with words such as “big,” “gone,” and “I’llneverseeyouagain.”
There is a good reason for such bitterness on our part since most of us have to use professional tax services to file taxes.
To put it simply, you have to pay extra money to some guy so that he can take more of your money and give it to the government. Isn’t there something wrong with this?
Sixty percent of the members of the Federal Ways and Means Committee and the Senate Finance Committee don’t do their own taxes, according to a Money Magazine survey.
The only difference is that Congress gets free tax preparation services — you don’t.
Nevertheless, doing taxes is a must especially for students. Here is why:
1. Most students can get money back (unless you got lucky and got a big fat check from your great-great-grandpa, you wish).
2. Filing taxes is a requirement when applying for federal money (FAFSA). Yep, it’s either you file taxes or you can write a check to Loyola for its modest tuition of close to $19,000 per year (oh wait, doesn’t it go up by 17 percent next year? You do the math).
O.K. so how do you file taxes Fast, Free, and Easy? The answer is Do It Online!
I know to some of us this sounds as too liberal an idea, but so was the Internet a decade ago and look at us now.
Everywhere you look you see moms and pops sitting in the library in front of thousands of screens checking their e-mail, reading the news, or simply browsing the Web.
If your main concern is safety, then go ahead and use the snail mail; I’m sure it’s a whole lot safer.
What I’m trying to say is that the only reason everyone is so freaked out about the internet security is because of the publicity online security cases have received in the past years.
Now I bet if every time the U.S. Postal Service had security issues and CNN did its job, people would be less confident in the good ol’ mail man.
If you have never filed taxes and are completely oblivious about the whole process, filing online is a perfect place to start.
It’s really that easy — just gather your W-2 forms and any others that you get from any financial institutions that you have dealt with and you’re on your way.
In addition, most Web sites offer free online tax filing for those with an income that is less than $28,000.
So this is what you do, if you want to file online.
Using your Internet browser, go to Internal Revenue Service’s Web site at http://www.irs.gov
When there, click onto an e-file link, which will guide you through the whole process.
The IRS Web site features explanations, rules and a long list of companies whom it has allowed to offer online tax filing (which in most cases is Free, Fast, and Easy).
