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Tax time is here again. You have piles of forms, mountains of receipts and a daunting, convoluted tax 1040 staring at you every time you walk past your desk. Whether you get filing out of the way early in the season or right on April 15th, it's a pain that no one enjoys. Filing federal tax forms is such a pain, in fact, that the average taxpayer spends over eight hours on it each year.
Computers have simplified the tedium of paper and pencil tax forms. With computerized tax return software, you can complete nearly the entire federal questionnaire by just entering the cold, hard numbers that dauntingly sit in front of you. Instead of slaving over your return and attempting to ensure you've computed the entries correctly, you can directly enter everything from your income to your receipts without needing to crunch any numbers.
Once you've completed the computerized return, you review it for completeness. After that, you can print out a copy, stick it in an envelope and send it off to the Internal Revenue Service. But with mailing a return, you have to wait weeks for it to be processed, and even longer to see a cent of your refund – of course, if you owe money and mail a check with your return, they'll process it much faster. A new option, eFiling, has gained much more popularity in recent years.
You may be wary of transmitting your federal tax forms over the internet. There are obvious security concerns in any online transaction, especially when the documents contain nearly all of your identifying information.
These security concerns are the reasons that eFiling is overseen, strictly, by the IRS. Each provider must apply and receive authorization from the IRS to process eFiled returns. Additionally, providers must meet and maintain rigid security standards to gain IRS approval to participate in the eFile program. Because eFiling is secure, you don't need to worry about loss or theft of your data as it's sent from your program to the IRS.
Due to recent programs initiated by the IRS, many tax payers are eligible for "Free File" service. This allows them to eFile their federal return, for free, through many authorized eFiling agents. Even if you don't qualify, the filing fee for eFiling is extremely affordable. If you want your refund quickly, or would just like to be sure the IRS accepts your return without complaint, then eFiling is typically worth the small filing fee.
When filling out a computerized form, it's beneficial to take advantage of eFiling. This method reduces errors, decreases the time it takes to process your return and lets you move on from tax time quickly and with peace of mind.
Learn more about efile and federal tax forms from our website.
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