Tax preparation isn’t what you would call cheap. Rather than spend a lot of money on a tax expert to prepare your taxes, there are a lot of free and cheap alternatives you can look into. For low-income families, these free tax preparation alternatives are a blessing as they sometimes can’t afford the tax preparation costs of professionals. In this article, we will take a look at these techniques which qualified low-income families can use to prepare their taxes.
Volunteer Income Tax Assistance
This free program is a federal grant program sponsored by the IRS which makes use of trained volunteers to offer free tax preparation. This service is open to low-income individuals, medium-income individuals, the elderly, and other people who make $56,000 or less. You can access this alternative in a variety of ways – using an online locator tool to find where you can find the VITA volunteers. The Self-prep option in VITA locations allows taxpayers to use web-based tax software to prepare their taxes with the help of an IRS volunteer. This way, individuals from low-income families can prepare their taxes for free.
IRS Free File
With IRS free file, taxpayers have access to a large number of free tax preparation programs from different notable tax preparation companies. IRS Free File is a partnership between the IRS and Free File Alliance – a non-profit organization. Low-income families qualify for this free tax preparation alternative. To make use of this alternative, you need to provide your basic information like your name and address. After this, IRS Free File will connect you with different tax preparation software products for free. Unlike for low-income individuals where IRS Free File provides guidance, individuals with gross income over the $69,000 limit are only given fillable IRS forms in electronic form.
Free Tax Preparation Software from Providers
Quite a number of tax preparation software providers offer free software for individuals with basic tax issues. Most of the time, the features of this differs from what is available on the IRS Free File. Individuals who have only one job are the best people to use this alternative. Also, state tax returns are included as part of the free packages. This way, low-income individuals can get their tax situations sorted for free. However, there are some limitations to this option – only simple tax situations can make use of this product for free and there might be some hidden charges.
United Way Program
United Way offers a free tax program called “My Free Taxes” that helps taxpayers using the software. Regardless of whether the tax forms are for state or federal, the aid is free. Low-income individuals or families with an income of $66,000 or less are eligible for this option. The support of this alternative is available in both English and Spanish.
There are different free tax preparations available for low-income families, the elderly, the disabled, and others. This means that you don’t have to spend so much on tax preparations as you can get it done for free as long as you meet the criteria. If you or your family need assistance this coming tax season, you may be eligible for free aid. The Debt Relief Education Foundation helps people just like you. Contact the Debt Relief Education Foundation today for a free consultation.