For the average American taxes are very simple. This makes
it quite easy to prepare with the use of software like TurboTax or H&R
Block. It will walk you through step by step, you just input the information
from your W-2’s.
I used the homeowner edition of this http://www.hrblock.com/tax-software/index.html
and split the cost with my family as you can use the same software to efile 5
times (5 different people’s taxes). Depending on how many members you have in
your family this brings the cost of doing your taxes to $5-10 instead of what
you’d pay your tax professional.
If you are getting a large refund at the end of the year you
will want to adjust your W-4 with your current company to withdraw less from
your paychecks for the following year. The reason you get back so much is
because you paid too much in the first place, so your refund is merely you
getting your own money back. The issue is that you did not make interest on
this money for the entire year. Instead you just gave the government a free
loan… and we see how the frugal the government is with our tax dollars.
Let’s say you got $3000 back on your taxes. If that same
$3000 had sat in a checking account at 2.05% for the year (the current rate at
People’s Community Credit Union) you would have had $3061.50 at tax return
time.
