It's that time of year again: tax time. This could be exciting (for those expecting a refund) or stressful (for those expecting to owe). Either way, online tax services can help you prepare an accurate return and submit it the Internal Revenue Service and your state tax commission.
TAX preparation is moving to the cloud. The makers of the better-known tax prep programs - TurboTax, H&R Block at Home and TaxAct - say that many customers, particularly younger ones, prefer Web-based programs to old-fashioned, desktop versions. Web-based programs - techies call this cloud computing - reside on remote servers that customers access via their browsers.
A couple of decades ago-if you were of an age to engage with the IRS-personal tax preparation usually involved a scenario something like this: Your kitchen table would be covered with stacks of receipts, IRS forms, lots of scratch paper, pencils and erasers, and a calculator.
I have thoroughly tested dozens of tax software programs over the years, and this year finding the best tax software is a daunting challenge. I have put each software program through three tax scenarios, including making sure the software is up-to-date on the latest changes in the alternative minimum tax.
CPA tax return preparers in 2013 contended with a compressed filing season and widespread reports of software performance problems. Software producers, the IRS, and tax preparers alike had to scramble to revamp their systems to reflect the retroactive enactment of many key extended tax provisions and some new ones by the American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012, P.L.
