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I finished filing my taxes today with Turbo Tax online. You can file for free if you have an online account with State Farm. Log in to your account and look for “Free Tax Filing” on the left menu bar. I had downloaded the free version of Tax Cut, and I was using that to gauge how much my return would be. I was going to file with Tax Slayer like I did last year, but they charge $9.95 to e-file. Last year I used Turbo Tax (I got a free download) to gauge my return, then I filed with Tax Slayer for free. Tax Slayer got me about 410 more than Turbo Tax said, but Tax Slayer was a little more complicated than Turbo Tax.

This year, TaxCut said I was going to get about $1900 for my federal return. This didn’t seem bad, but when I ran Turbo Tax, I got over $4000 back in my federal return. Add in over $1000 for my state taxes (I lived in Kentucky part of the year and Indiana the other part), and I am looking at a very nice return. I do not know what the differences were between the two programs, but the data I inputted was exactly the same. I probably should have checked with Tax Slayer as they may have had a better return, but I am happy with what I got.

The point of this post is if you are going to do your own taxes, you may want to try as many options as you can. I got an extra $2000 or so out of switching to a new tax program. I know people out there are probably saying there must be something wrong here because of the big difference in the returns, but I signed up for Audit Protection so I would not have to deal with it. I also do not see how anything could have gone wrong as I inputted everything directly from all the documents I had. They also have all those error checkers on the program, I would hope that would not let you file a return that was so far off.

Good Luck filing everyone.

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In the book I just read and reviewed - Smart and Simple Financial Strategies for Busy People by Jane Bryant Quinn - there was a lot of good information about 529 plans. I thought I would share the key points from the book and some research I did on my own. One of my New Year’s Resolutions is to start saving for my kid’s college, so this info came as a real help. I know I have 16 years until my first daughter goes to college, but like everyone says, it is always better to start earlier than later.

The best websites to start for good information:
Read the rest of this entry »

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Speaking of taxes, the IRS is allowing taxpayers to file refunds for the excise tax that they paid on their telephone bills (includes cell phones and VOIP lines). Link to the IRS article is here.

Everyone has probably already heard about this, but I wanted to remind my parents and in-laws to file for this. I also wanted to check my cell phone and see how much I was paying per month for this tax. Hopefully Verizon has all my past statements online.

The only thing I see on my bill is a “Fed Universal Service Charge”. If that is it, I should make about $1.50 per month. I’ve had my phone since December, so December through August would get me a nice $13.50. That’s better than nothing!

UPDATE! - My Money Blog states that all you have to do is check a box on your tax return and you can claim anywhere from $30 - $60 based on your exemptions. That is great for me as I was only looking at around $13.

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It’s tax time again, and last year I found a great site called TaxSlayer. Last year they had free E-file for federal and state, but this year there is a $9.95 one time fee to E-file. This site is very good and works just like any TurboTax software. Last year I was not able to E-file my Kentucky state tax (one of the many reasons I hate the state), but I was able to print off the tax return from Tax Slayer and mail it in. The reason I could not E-file was Kentucky’s fault, not TaxSlayer.

I will probably try to print off my federal and state tax returns and mail them in this year (I am very cheap and will not pay the $10 if I don’t have to). Give it a look over. It does not cost anything until you are done and try to E-file, so go through the steps, if you don’t like it, Exit out. I went through a few last year until I found this site.

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