Income Tax 2021 2022 free tax tools, getting tax refunds to the max diving into income tax 2021 2022. We’re going to be looking at tax tools with two categories or two objectives in mind here,
00:18
the first objective being looking for those free tools that we might be able to use to complete our own personal tax return, and to looking for free tools that we might be able to use to learn the tax code, learn tax preparation, and possibly look forward in the future towards a career in taxation, either working for a tax firm or having a tax business.
00:40
So obviously, one tool that will be applicable in either category will be the IRS website on the IRS website, we have our own account that we would want to be able to log into. So that will be basically on just irs.gov, you should be able to memorize it, you don’t have to basically save it anywhere.
00:59
It’s pretty easy website to memorize IRS dot geo V IRS dot geo V on the homepage, you can sign into your account. So in your account here, the IRS is hopefully getting better and better at providing information such as any kind of estimated payments, you have made.
01:16
Some of the benefits that have gone out possibly being the advanced Child Tax Credit, for example, and the and the other stimulus payments and so on, could be stuff that it’s going to be more and more likely that we’ll need access to the accounts in the future.
01:31
And hopefully, the IRS is going to get better and better at providing that information for ourselves in our personal tax preparation. We also want to train our clients to be accessing those accounts so they can access it a little bit more easily and possibly answer questions as we do tax preparation.
01:46
So that’s one tool, we also have the IRS with regards to the forms and instructions, not so that we can download the forms and fill them out by hand per se, but so that we can look at the instructions primarily here for the individual taxes, those being the instructions for the form 1040.
02:04
So anytime you have a question, that’s most likely the first place you’re going to go when you’re actually doing the data input.
02:10
And we’ll actually base a lot of the content on the course, that is going through the line by lines of the tax formula, following the tax entry, which will be from the instructions to the form 1040. So that’s another key resource, then we’ve got the software that we can use. So we have software that you might be able to get for free.
02:30
And you can search for that on the IRS website by just searching in@irs.gov for IRS Free File. And that is going to be basically a way to sort kinds of software that have a free option to it.
02:44
So if you yourself are preparing your own taxes, and you want to do it, and see if you could find free software to actually file the tax return or you’re helping someone else. Possibly you’re helping multiple people how possibly you can basically,
02:58
you know do that basically guide people towards the resources and help them through the different resources that are out there to prepare tax returns those being the free resources, then these would be some ways to organize this, we’ll come back to here and go into this in a little bit more detail.
03:13
If on the other hand, you’re looking for free resources just to practice and learn the tax code, then you might go into some more the professional tax software and see if you can get a free trial or something like that to it to practice the data input there and possibly practice different kinds of scenarios for different types of tax returns software,
03:33
that’s more likely the kind of thing that you’ll be using in practice. So different types of software we looked at last time, that’s what we’ll be using here.
03:42
So if we go into the data input screens in the course, we won’t spend a lot of time on the data input screens, or anything like that. But the idea of entering the data and then looking at the tax return is faster with professional software,
03:54
because it’s not in an interview type process. I’m looking at Intuit because I work with QuickBooks. And and that’s also owned into it also owns Lacerte.
04:05
So you might look into say, the free options for top software’s this just being an example. I’m not a promoter of Intuit, or I’m not getting getting paid by them in any way.
04:16
But if you were to look at the Intuit website, which you can basically search for in your browser, you can search for Lacerte tax software or Intuit Pro Connect, and you should be able to find it, it’s a little bit more difficult to go into the Intuit website directly for some reason, because it’s like Pro Connect first.
04:33
So they’ve kind of separated their tax information from their other bookkeeping. And when you go into their normal website, you’re going to find mainly Turbo Tax there,
04:43
which is the individual kind of option which is probably more widely spread in terms of individuals versus tax preparers that would use something like this.
04:53
But again, they have this free trial item down here. So you might be able to get access to some of the salt Now the differences between these software’s here is that low CERT is is a desktop option that you might be able to host to remotely but it’s on your desktop, kind of like all old software used to be like QuickBooks Desktop is on your actual desktop, as opposed to on a browser,
05:17
I believe the Intuit Pro Series is as well. So if you get access to those two, you, you might be able to get free access to work with them, it might not be the most current version, however, it might be 2020, or 2019. But you might be able to practice with those, although you can’t really file your taxes with them.
05:33
I believe this one here, the the Intuit Pro Connect is an online version of the software, kind of like a comparison between QuickBooks Desktop that’s actually on your desktop, and QuickBooks Online, which is a browser based software, I still have some concerns with basically,
05:51
the the, the ability for people to hack into a browser based software, something like that with tax software, because I read all these things from the IRS where they’re concerned about that kind of stuff. But maybe that’s just me, and I’m just, you know, paranoid with it. But you might be able to practice with that one, as well.
06:09
So here’s what the three of them kind of look like, here’s the online software that you can basically work through a browser kind of of system and look at that, you might be able to get access to it. If say you have a QuickBooks account with Intuit, you might be able to look at that.
06:25
And they’ve got some nice example files here that you could you could go in, obviously, this isn’t going to help you prepare your actual tax return unless you pay for some preparing of it, which goes beyond the free option.
06:36
But you can look at the the data input in in the format they have here and then jump on over to the actual tax form. So that could be that could be a great tool to work with.
06:50
And I believe if you can get access to that we’re in the 2021. If you look at the if you look at the other version, this is their one of the desktop version, not Lacerte. And it has a prior year version 2020 that you could practice data input with on it, which is nice. That was pro series.
07:11
And then the CERT is a desktop version as well. So you can take a look at those items here. We’ll be working mainly with Le cert, and I like Lessard I’ve been using that for a long time.
07:22
So I think I’m comfortable with it. I have my opinion is biased on it. But in any case, those are some options. Now with the online software here, this is on the Intuit website, irs dot govt, these were different, these are going to be third party software’s as well, which typically you would have to pay for.
07:40
But if your income is below a certain threshold, then you can get access to the free filing of the software and actually use it to file complete the task of filing your individual software and possibly you can help other people guide them to the appropriate software
07:55
that would be useful for them. So if you type in IRS irs.gov, IRS Free File, you’ve got the two options down here below, which is the first one is going to be guiding you through tax preparation.
08:09
And and the next one is the fillable forms, you don’t really typically want the fillable forms unless you feel quite comfortable entering the data because that’s more like entering it by hand.
08:18
So I would go to this first one choose an IRS Free File offer if you’re going to choose one of these IRS Free File option options, do your taxes online for free with IRS Free File provider. It’s not actually through the IRS, they’re going to point you to third party software.
08:34
So that’s a little deceiving of language. But you know the government doesn’t have to worry about false advertising or anything. So okay, here we go. If your adjusted gross income AGI was $73,000 or less, review each providers offer to make sure you qualify. Some offers include a free status tax return,
08:52
use the IRS Free File lookup tool to narrow your list of providers or the browse all offers page to see a full list of providers. After selecting one of the IRS Free File offers, you will leave the irs.gov website. So find your best option. What will you need.
09:11
So you can browse the providers here if you so choose, you can look at all the providers or you can use their lookup tool. Now what these are, these are third party providers that are offering the software for free but under certain conditions, all those conditions are not the same.
09:28
So some key conditions that you want to take a look at one is of course going to be an income level. So some software’s will have have free software at a lower income level than others.
09:39
But there’s also big condition on the state returns Do you need a state return that’s going to be prepared? If so you would like the software to fill fulfill both those needs the federal and the state and some software’s will charge for the state or so on or may not charge for the state.
09:55
That’s why this little lookup tool will help you find the one that is free for you in your particular state, for example, and you might have the Earned Income Tax Credit, which is a quite complicated credit to calculate, some software’s may actually say that we’re not going to calculate the earned income credit, for example.
10:14
And so you want to make sure that it picks up that also for an income could be something that might be a distinguishing factor.
10:20
Some software’s may be not taking that or may not provide a free option, at least for that as well. So make sure that the software provides what you need, I’m just going to go into browse all of them. Just so you can see down below, you’ve got your filtering options up top by by the income level, the age, the Earned Income Tax Credit eligibility.
10:39
So once again, that on or off, will be a key factor because it’s a it’s a complex credit that they might not offer for free, active military, another one that could be a distinguishing factor. And then country of residence state residents, again, the state that you are in is going to be a distinguishing factor because the state tax returns will differ.
10:59
So here’s a couple of the of the tax tax places that might be of potential free options. So you got the IRS Free File program delivered by the 1040.
11:10
Now, I don’t I’ve never worked with them. I’ve never worked with most of these tax softwares. So you know, they but they should be tax software.
11:18
So hopefully, hopefully, they’ll do the job here. But it has an AGI of 73,000 or less the ages any. And the states would be the states here that they are accepting Free State no free state tax preparation in any state.
11:32
So to have a restriction on the state requirement here, the Earned Income Tax Credit included if AGI is met military is included on this one.
11:43
So again, these all these types of tax softwares will typically be more of an interview type of process as opposed to kind of like, I’m assuming I’ve not used them. But as opposed to like this kind of thing, which is more of a strict data input type of thing, a little bit more fast data input.
12:00
So you got the Tax Act, IRS Free File program, IRS Free File program delivered 73,000 Less versus this one, which is 65. This one has an age limit, because there’s some more complications with tax returns that are over that age.
12:15
This one has the states that are included here. Free Freda filing, and then and then the state’s no free state. And then this one I like I love the name of this one tax Slayer.
12:28
But it’s getting up there it’s getting, it’s getting better because they have a lower AGI. So I’m assuming that, you know, they’re saying I’m only going to do it for free if it’s below 39,000. Age, any
12:41
age any state though, which is nice filing residents, free 1040 tax return free 1040 tax return calm, then you got free USA 41,000 agi limit versus 43,000. You’ve got free your taxes.com and o LT online tax. So again, this one’s between 16 and 73. Again, I’ve not used any of those softwares.
13:09
And you’ll notice that Turbo Tax isn’t on that list, although I think TurboTax might provide a free option as well. If your incomes below a certain threshold. I don’t know why that would be the case. And they wouldn’t have been in the IRS program.
13:21
Other than just internal tensions of some kind. I don’t I don’t know. But those are those are basically the options. So just a quick recap. Clearly the IRS website is going to be one of the free resources you want to take advantage of with instructions and your account.
13:35
And then whether or not you’re using the tools for to learn tax law and possibly to work in a CPA firm or accounting firm or tax firm or to start your own business versus Are you just trying to get your own tax return done. You might then choose your free tools based on that decision.
13:53
Go into towards your own learning perspective, you might try to look into see if you can get the more professional tax software for a free trial version and look into how those are working. If it’s you’re on the personal side,
14:06
then you might work on the tax software that’s more of an interview type of process. Any tax software though, would be good to practice with it.