Sree's Thoughts on Taxes & The Web
Thursday, March 8, 2001

If you're smart, you are done with your taxes for this year and are reading this to help you plan for NEXT year's taxes.

If you're like me, you need all the help you can get.

A logical place to start is the official IRS site, http://www.irs.gov. My tax preparer, Padma Vaidyanathan at http://www.thepavagroup.com, tells me the IRS site has improved tremendously in the last couple of years and is "pretty good" for individuals and small-business folks to use. The IRS estimates that more than 42 million returns -- one-third of all filings -- will be done electronically this year.

Security when filing online is always a concern. But they have been doing e-filing in one form or another for 15 years now, and it's safer than ever and faster than traditional filing.

Here are other sites to scout.

TAXES.YAHOO.COM:
http://taxes.yahoo.com
Yahoo has a comprehensive site that covers everything from charitable contributions to Roth IRAs. Be sure to visit the tax prep checklist and and the tax glossary.

MONEY.COM/TAXES:
http://money.com/taxes
The folks at Money magazine have a very good online tax guide. Check out their line-by-line description of your 1040 form, their links to state tax forms and even their second-by-second countdown to April 16th.

TAXPLANET.COM:
http://www.taxplanet.com
If you are actually ready to plan ahead, bookmark TaxPlanet.com. Among its offerings, a year-round tax planning guide. This site, run by Gary Klott, former tax columnist of The New York Times, was named best tax site by Money magazine last year.

123GREETINGS.COM:
http://www.123greetings.com/events/itreturnsdue/
On a lighter note, check out 123greetings.com to find funny electronic greetings you can send to your friends to say, chin up!

TURBO TAX:
http://www.quicken.com/taxes/
In my opinion, TurboTax is the best tax preparation software. Check out the Web-only version.

On thing to be careful about:
On some sites, you might see promises to get you a refund in 2-3 days. Be careful. These are likely to be "refund loan" programs -- in effect, you are borrowing against the refunds that won't come to you for four to five weeks -- and you might end up paying really high interest.

 

Sree's Site of The Week


http://www.nwhp.org

March is Women's History Month and the best place I know to start exploring women's history is the Web home of the National Women's History Project (these are the folks who helped lobby Congress to get the women's month).

The site says it is "the only clearinghouse providing information and training in multicultural women’s history for educators, community organizations, and parents--for anyone wanting to expand their understanding of women contributions to U. S. history."

The site offers excellent listings of events and links to other sites dealing with women's history. I learned a lot.

National Women's History Project
http://www.nwhp.org

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