If you use direct deposit to get you refund then you could have your money with 10 days. With the new changes that the IRS has made to the e-file program this is a great way for people who are struggling to make ends me to get their tax refund fast and free.

The new Free File Fillable Tax Forms is so advanced that it is just like filing tax forms on paper. The layout is the same so you will not have a learning curb. The IRS made this new service for people who are comfortable with the tax laws already know what tax forms they need to file with. If you don’t need help with your taxes then this is perfect for you. Free file is now for people who make $54,000 or less a year. If you make more than that then it will not be free but still be fast.

Now you also have the option to file your returns now and pay later if you owe anything on your taxes. Plus the IRS e-file also lets you file both your federal and state taxes at the same time. That will really make things much faster. Since almost 90 million tax returns last year was filled out 58% were e-file users. I bet that will go up dramatically now.

They even have sources for employers whether you business is big or small. Plus self employed people can use the service too.

With these new improvements you have no excuse to sit back and procrastinate. The IRS has made it faster and free to get your tax return forms filed. This is the best way for the average person to get this done. So make sure you start now and know wait to the last minute.

The author is a website owner who is helping others find the right online products for success. If you are self employed and looking for ways to get the best return possible on your taxes then you need to visit: Tax Advice. To find products to help you become self employed then visit: http://www.allproman.com/product-reviews/

If you are diagnosed by your doctor for obesity, he will advise you for weight loss treatment. Some other problems related to obesity like heart disease, hypertension or high levels of cholesterol may also force your doctor to prescribe for such treatment.

This treatment may include a lot of things – hospital based treatment including surgery, use of medicines, counseling for diet, joining programs like weight watchers and behavioral counseling. Expenses on all of these can be legitimately claimed as deduction on your tax return.

However, you cannot claim this deduction without knowing the requirements of IRS. Here are some important tips if you want to claim your expenditure on weight loss treatment -

1. First of all, you must have a written intimation from your doctor about your obesity and the suggested treatment. This is very important. You may not summit this with your tax return but you should keep it with you in case of any inquiry from IRS.

2. You should also keep the receipts and invoices for getting such treatment. Once again, it is not required to be submitted with your tax return but you must preserve it for some time.

3. Make a total of all such expenditure for the full year. This expenditure must be over and above your insurance cover. If such expenditure exceeds the 7.5 per cent of your adjusted gross income, the excess can be claimed as a deduction on your tax return. So if your adjusted gross income is $75,000, your expenditure should exceed $5,625 in order to be eligible to claim this deduction.

4. You cannot deduct expenditure on account of health club subscriptions, over the counter medicines, purchase of diet foods and nutritional supplements and purchase of exercise equipment even though such expenditure helps in controlling obesity. IRS treats it as expenditure to improve your health which is non-deductible.

5. You must itemize for claiming this deduction on your tax return.

Interestingly, IRS does not specifically mentions what is obesity. It leaves such discussion to your doctor. But at the same time, good news is, once your doctor decides on the treatment, you need not prove any improvement in your condition to claim that deduction!

Obesity is a serious problem in US. Treatment is very expensive and most of it is usually uninsured. But the good news is, you can claim it as a deduction on your tax return. How? Chintamani Abhyankar provides useful advice to claim such expenditure successfully.

Chintamani Abhyankar, is an expert in the field of finance and taxation for last 25 years. He has written many books explaining inside secrets of the magic world of finance. His famous eBook Stop donating your money to IRS which is now running in its second edition, provides intricate knowledge and tips on personal income tax.

5 Reasons to Prepare Your Own Tax Return

1. You’ll save money! Tax professionals charge substantial fees. Many of them also charge per form, even if you only used one line on that form! Tax software products have made the process much less pain-staking, and are available at a fraction of the cost of professional services.
2. Maintain privacy by keeping your personal information just that — private. You can protect yourself by limiting the amount of people who have access to your information.
3. Gain valuable insight into your finances. You will learn a lot through the process, as well as through yearly comparison.
4. You spend time gathering all of the information and paperwork anyway; including the time spent in and around your tax preparer’s office.
5. You can complete your tax return at your own convenience, day or night. Also, you will not have to wait at the discretion of your tax professional’s calendar. Tax software will also allow you to save your progress if you need to do it in portions.

Make It Easier On Yourself!

Set up a labeled file (or several categorized files, if necessary). Do this now for next year’s tax season (i.e. “2009 Tax Documentation”) and even better, make it a part of your New Year’s resolution every year. File tax documents immediately upon receiving them and be diligent about it. At tax time, you will be glad that you did! Also, use a reliable tax software or online filing service for filing your tax return. There are several user-friendly options out there that are designed to take the guess work out of it all, making the process a lot less stressful while maintaining accuracy. They are available for a fraction of the cost of professional tax services, and many of these offer efiling, sometimes for free!

Help save a tree! Consider efiling. It will accelerate the process. You will get your refund faster with direct deposit and you will save paper. It is a much more efficient and environmentally conscious method.

If you still feel that hiring a tax professional is your best option, set your appointment early. Tax professionals can book up fast, and you don’t want to be left scrambling for an appointment!

Feel Empowered: Educate Yourself.

Understand the tax laws as they apply to you. You are responsible for all information on your return, regardless of who actually prepares your taxes. When in doubt, the IRS website has a wealth of information at your disposal, and you can contact them with questions regarding your return. A reputable tax software is not only efficient; it will reduce the likelihood of errors. Many are designed in a question-and-answer format where you are prompted to simply enter information, ultimately formatting your entire return for you!

Click here for the tools and solutions that will help you and visit http://www.squidoo.com/tax_preparation_help for more information to help you in preparing your own tax return!

So, with a mighty resolution, you decide to get started on your Tax Return this very weekend. You pack your spouse off to a picnic and roll up your sleeves and get ready. You are not afraid of paper, not a bit. You run off to the post office and get all the latest forms and worksheets and sit down at your desk.

So painted below in words is a hypothetical scenario of what would transpire as you head down the glorious path of preparing your Tax Return.

Scenario 1 : HAND-FILLED, SELF-FILED TAX RETURN

1. You go to the post office and pick up the paper booklet with the tax form. Now if you are smart you would have gotten every tax form you know – but you did’nt, so you had to make 2 trips to get all the forms you need.
2. Next… You have to go through the meticulous process of having to fill one box at a time, make sure your entries are okay, make sure you at least copied down everything from your W2 into your . Because each calculation is connected to the next, each box ties to the next. At the end of this painstaking process you arrive at the final number – your refund or the tax you owe.
3. Next step – Find the right address to mail to. Do you know where to mail your tax return. Well its there, its probably in the instructions to the form. Again scan every word until you get the address. Oh Well Eureka!! You just found it.. congratulations. Now put that in an envelope.
4. Walk to the post-office make it before midnight on April 15th and make sure you catch the last snail mail train. Because if it leaves, you are in trouble.. BIG trouble!
5. Well you made it. You rub your hands with joy and pat yourself on the back. Your Tax RETURN IS FINALLY DONE !! Well you just hit the starter to the engine. You just set in motion for the next series of events that will ultimately get you that coveted refund check! Assuming no postal delays – your tax return will get to the IRS in about 2 business days.
6. Next your little piece of work, your tax return, will enter a queue until its routed to the correct department. lets give his a day for making this arduous journey.
7. Next, It gets picked up to be scanned using sophisticated machines called optical scanners which converts your handwritten tax return into a readable computer file.
8. Hiccup 1: If you hand filled your return with pen and paper, if the scanner cannot recognize your handwriting – then the scanning process will reject – and then it would get put into another queue to be manually processed by a human – lets give 4 to 5 days for this to happen.
9. Someone will actually read your tax return and then type the contents manually into a computer. At this point your tax return is now a what is called a raw data file.
10. Now the raw data file will get run through an editing program which will verify the basic details – like did you put in a valid SSN, did you punch in too many zeros in your income eg. you wrote $50000 instead of $5000 in a box on the form.
11. If everything is okay, Your return which is now computer file will then get put into a database along with millions of other tax payers. Your tax return will join thousands of others who e-filed their tax return at this point.
12. From this point on – the process should work like greased lightning. Next a series of computer programs will be run on the database to validate the tax returns. It will compare the data on your file against what your employers filed. So if you incorrectly entered $15200 on your income but the employer sent in $20,000 the process will pull out your tax return for ’special’ processing.
13. Also your tax return gets pulled up in a random audit checks. The most brilliant minds in the IRS ought to be designing these computer programs to determine which tax return needs to be pulled up for auditing. Perhaps the holy grail of IRS secrets !
14. If you pass step 9, and you have a refund, you will be routed to a program that prints your refund check – give another 1-2 days for this process to complete.
15. If you elected direct deposit, a pay request will be sent to deposit the money into your bank account (1 day)
16. If you did not elect direct deposit, your refund check will go for printing (1 day). Then your refund will go to the mailing department to be sent to you (1-2days). After about (2-3 days) of spending time in the USPS, the check should get to you – again via snail mail, the same way you mailed out your tax return.

This was just one tax filing scenario – the one with a happy ending! Did you glean any information from this ? Did you learn how you can do this process more efficiently, or how you can cut your tax preparation costs. Find out more about the tax filing process and the tools and tax preparation tips that will surely save you a lot of grief and save you money!

Ronald Robson is a freelance writer, management consultant and avid blogger. He specializes in computer software and its applicability to varied businesses. Visit his site to learn about other great Online Tax preparation tools.
Disclaimer: This does not constitute tax advice.

If you are a nurse, do not forget to claim the following deductions -

1. Uniforms – The cost of acquiring uniforms and the cost of their cleaning and maintenance is an important expense for a nurse. As they are directly related to job, you can claim such cost as deduction on your tax return.

2. Specialized equipment – If you are required to buy some specific shoes or if equipment like stethoscopes or clamps, you can claim that cost as your deduction. If you are required to buy a PDA for coping up with the job, its cost can also be taken as legitimate deduction.

3. Fees for license and training – The fees which you pay for renewal of your license are deductible. If you buy any books or medical journals for keeping tract with the latest in your field, their costs will be deductible.

4. Expenses on travel – If you travel overseas and visit any clinics or hospitals there for keeping your knowledge up to date, you can claim your expenses on foreign travel as a legitimate deduction from your income. However this is a tricky deduction and you should approach your tax advisor for taking appropriate guidance. The expenses for hiring a tax adviser are also deductible from your income!

5. Expenses on moving – If your spouse is moving to another state and you are required to move along, you may be required to take a new license for doing job in that state. Such expense is deductible from your income.

6. Traveling expenses – If your job requires frequent traveling, you can claim expenses on travelling on your tax return. For making such are claim, you have to have a tax home. When you are not on duty, you are supposed to stay at this place. This you should be your mailing address. Your traveling expenses should originate from this place. Remember, your assignments while on travel must be temporary. You cannot work for one full year on one job site and claim expenses as travelling nurse.

Your travelling expenses include lodging, meals, use of cell phone and transportation expenses. You need to keep receipts and invoices of all such expenditure for any enquiry from IRS.

There may be some significant changes in your life in the last tax year – you might have got married or you may be having a baby or you might have bought your new house. All these changes will affect your tax at the end of the year. Remember, whatever you do during the year will determine your tax at the end!

If you are a nurse, you care for the health of other people. You need to care for your finance and taxes also! There are some specific deductions available to nurses. What are they? How to take them? Chintamani Abhyankar provides useful insight to claim such deductions successfully.

Chintamani Abhyankar, is an expert in the field of finance and taxation for last 25 years. He has written many books explaining inside secrets of the magic world of finance. His famous eBook Stop donating your money to IRS which is now running in its second edition, provides intricate knowledge and tips on personal income tax.

Here are top 10 red flags which may trigger tax audits -

1. Unreasonable deductions for home office – If you operate your business from home, you are tempted to deduct most of your spending as business expenditure. There are specific rules published by IRS to classify business and personal expenditure. If you miss out on some of them, you are inviting a tax audit.

2. Mismatching your Federal and state tax returns – If there is a difference between the incomes declared on these two tax returns, it will be immediately picked up by IRS computers and you will soon get a notice for tax audit.

3. High earnings – If your annual income crosses $100,000, it may attract the attention of IRS.

4. Excessive charitable contributions – If your contributions to charity range between 5 to 10 percent of your income, IRS feel it is a good reason to ask you explanation.

5. Mess up in alternative minimum tax (AMT) – If you are subject to AMT, you should approach a tax professional in order to avoid calculation mistakes. Even if you feel to submit AMT schedule, you become prominent to attract attention of IRS.

6. Incorrect reporting of dividend and interest – Some people tend to ignore small amounts of dividend while preparing their tax return. Some people are careless about keeping a record of all the dividends they receive during a year. It is very easy for IRS to cross-verify such interest and dividend figures as their computers are programmed accordingly. Even a single omission of dividend or interest item will immediately alert IRS.

7. Assigning your tax work to an unprofessional consultant – Some of the so-called ‘professional’ tax consultants will promise you a refund without checking all your papers. In the process there may claim for some inflated or the illegal deductions which will attract the attention of IRS. The consequences of such a mess are too serious – including heavy interest and penalties.

8. The habit of rounding it up – If you have received a dividend of $609.49, you cannot round it up to $600. There are many numbers on your tax return which will not be round numbers. If your return is full of such numbers, it may become ‘eligible’ for tax audit.

9. Erratic changes in your income – If your income for the last year was $100,000 and for the current year you declare an income of only $20,000, IRS will be suspicious about your return and would like to investigate it more.

10. Claiming too many tax credits – While claiming credits for education, earned income or for seniors, people tend to confuse. It is a human tendency to claim more than what you are entitled for. Naturally, you pay lesser taxes then required. Finally, the hassle of clearing this mess can be much more than the value of that wrongly claimed credit.

If you are a disciplined to keep proper records and claim only legitimate deductions, most of these red flags should not concern you. If you are confused about a particular item, it is advisable to take advice of a tax consultant.

If you are caught by IRS for tax audit, you get nervous. It’s a very testing time in your financial life. If you know how IRS selects returns eligible for audit, you can avoid such audit many times. What are red flags raised by IRS? How it picks up returns for audit every year out of millions? Chintamani Abhyankar explains the inside secrets of such tapping process.

Chintamani Abhyankar, is an expert in the field of finance and taxation for last 25 years. He has written many books explaining inside secrets of the magic world of finance. His famous eBook Stop donating your money to IRS which is now running in its second edition, provides intricate knowledge and tips on personal finance and income tax.

1. Mathematical corrections – Usually IRS computers generate these audits. If you have made mistakes while filing your tax return, these computers are most likely to catch you. These are silly mathematical mistakes which you would have avoided easily. Some of these mistakes are – entering incorrect spelling of your name on your tax return, entering incorrect social security number, entering the incorrect status, making a wrong calculations about earned income credit and improper assessment of estimated tax.

Usually IRS assumes that your details are correct and makes the calculation of your tax figures based on them. If there is any additional tax liability, they will add interest and penalties to it and you will be sent a notice demanding such money.

You will have a period of 30 days to contact IRS and schedule an appointment to prove that your original data is correct.

2. Mismatching of documents – These audits are also computer generated. All the forms you file along with your tax return like W-2 forms or K-2 forms will be cross checked with the details sent by the issuer of such forms. If IRS comes to a conclusion that you did not report all your income on the basis of this cross verification, they can send you a bill specifying the extra amount including interest as well as penalties to be paid by you.

When you receive such notice, you get 30 days to clarify your position.

3. DIF score – This is a secret formula developed by IRS which identifies the returns most eligible for tax audit. If the DIF score on the tax return is higher, IRS will decide to audit such tax return. The reasons which trigger increase in DIF score are many like Schedule C expenses, drastic changes in your income or unusually high deductions.

4. Random selection – IRS selects randomly individual returns for audit purposes. These returns will be scrutinized very minutely. The auditor will go line by line to examine the whole of your tax return and will ask you to provide enough supporting evidence. These are most dangerous audits and nobody can predict which returns will be selected in a particular year.

5. Public records and statistics – Focusing on the standard of living of a taxpayer, based on public records and statistics available, the auditors will try to establish that you have unreported income. Public records may include credit reports, property records, motor vehicle records and reports on currency transactions.

6. Special projects – IRS will pick a dozen scams every year and intensify scrutiny of all concerned people. These ‘dirty dozen’ will face all sorts of scrutiny and will be handled by a special division of IRS.

While IRS will naturally concentrate on unscrupulous people not reporting their correct income, it is possible for an ordinary taxpayer to avoid most of the above nets with a disciplined and honest approach.

If you are caught by IRS for tax audit, you get nervous. It’s a very testing time in your financial life. If you know how IRS selects returns eligible for audit, you can avoid such audit many times. What are the criteria of IRS? How it picks up returns for audit every year out of millions? Chintamani Abhyankar explains the inside secrets of such tapping process.

Chintamani Abhyankar, is an expert in the field of finance and taxation for last 25 years. He has written many books explaining inside secrets of the magic world of finance. His famous eBook Stop donating your money to IRS which is now running in its second edition, provides intricate knowledge and tips on personal finance and income tax.

Want to know your tax refund without actually going through the whole process of filing your tax return?

Is there some tool that will do this for you? for Free?

Yes there is!

Its a little tool called the tax refund calculator.

What does the Tax Refund Calculator do?

Its an online software that you can use to basically get a quick estimate of your taxes without actually preparing your tax return. it is backed by some of the biggest names in the Tax prep business.

You enter basic details like your marital status,your income from your job, You enter your deductions like your home, you charitable contributions, your retirement contributions- hit a button and your taxes are calculated for you.

If you are unsure of an amount you can always guesstimate – because this is not an actual tax return. However, the more accurate your entries, the better the refund estimate would be.

Where can you find it?

Several online tax vendors provide this service for free See here for details on one of the best tax refund calculator for 2008.

Why Should You Use it?

* Get a quick estimate of your taxes.This whole process hardly takes 5-10 minutes.
* You can get a preview of your taxes for 2008. And then take your time to gather all the documents needed to actually prepare and file your tax return.
* Best of all – Its free. Its free as in FREE. Because you don’t even have to signup for something or even give up any of your personal information.

About:
Ron Robson is a free-lance writer and a technology management consultant. Visit his site - TaxEasy.com to get a quick run down on the latest and greatest tools available to prepare and file your taxes for 2008 and beyond.