Let Tax Software Find Tax Deductions For You

Who enjoys doing taxes? For the one guy out there who raised your hand, put it down… no one believes you anyway. The rest of us hate doing taxes and more importantly, we hate paying The Man. One thing we hate more than paying The Man, is overpaying The Man. So, the annual searching and researching for deductions begins right around now and goes on until April 15th. Let me make a quick suggestion, skip the caveman tax return by-hand thing and enter the 21st century. Let software do the heavy lifting.

By using tax software, you essentially guarantee that you’ll get as accurate a return as you can possibly get as long as you answer all the questions accurately (as they say, “garbage in, garbage out”). If you miss a potential deduction, tax preparation software will likely ask the right questions and get the deduction if you qualify. The software updates itself so you’re sure to get any changes to tax law that are passed after the IRS printed out the paper forms (such as the AMT patch). While software isn’t infallible, it’s certainly better at it than you are.

One additional thing to consider is that many Americans qualify for free tax preparation (and even filing!) through special programs. If it’s free, it makes no sense to do it yourself.

Lastly, here are some common income tax deduction and some often overlooked income tax deductions if you still want to do the caveman by-hand thing.