How to defer Tax Filing
IRS Free File Online
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internal revenue service irs website
file your federal taxes online
for free the irs recently announced that
people may now have access to the free
online
uh forms or the free online software so
i searched on the irs website just to
check
it out so we're at irs.gov irs.gov the
first part here
and you can type in the search window
free file and it should take you here so
we're in
the fill your federal taxes online for
free
and this is going to be a nice service
for anybody that needs to basically do
their taxes but
it looks like they kind of wanted to
rule it out early for those people that
might
need or might be looking to pick up the
economic impact payment in the form of a
recovery rebate
credit so for those taxpayers that for
whatever reason
didn't get full payments for the
economic impact payments for round one
and round two
then the remedy for that would typically
be to file your tax returns
for 2020 in 2021
and there might be some people that
don't normally aren't required to file
their taxes
uh but they didn't get the economic
impact payment so in order to get access
to it they may need then to file a tax
return a fairly basic tax return
but still you know more of a requirement
than they may be used to
and therefore the the online software
tools
could be a great tool for that to
basically
be able to process your tax returns so
let's just check it out here
they're going to basically link to third
party providers so we're on the irs
website
and it looks like they're kind of linked
up with third party providers other
people other than the irs other
companies
and and then they'll they'll kind of
link you over to their website to get
you
access to their software to basically
fill out the software so let's check it
out
free file is open is now open so it's
now available
so welcome to free file where you can
prepare and file your federal
individual income tax return for free
using tax preparation and filing
software
let freefile do the hard work for you
with brand named
software if you didn't get the full
economic impact payment
you may be eligible to claim the
recovery rebate credit using
free file if you didn't get any payment
or
get or got less than the full amounts
you may qualify for the credit
even if you don't normally file taxes so
the recovery rebate credit
for more information you can take a look
at the recovery rebate credit here for
more information
so the the level of tax returns that
will be filed is likely to be much
higher this year
due to people trying to pick up the
recovery rebate credit in situations
where they
may not normally file otherwise so irs
free file
lets you prepare and file your federal
income tax online
for free file at irs partner site
with the irs free file program or use
free file fillable forms
it's safe easy and no cost to you so
pick an option based on your income
so income of 72 000 and below
we have the the free federal tax filing
on the irs partner site
this the state tax filing free with some
offers so that's going to be key again
if you go into these softwares and
you're looking for a state
software as well and you need to do the
state tax return make sure you're
thinking about that if you don't need
the state tax return you're just looking
to pick up the recovery rebate credits
and then
may not be an issue so guided
preparation simply answer questions it
should be an
interview type process so you know a
computerized interview type process to
help you walk through a questionnaire
type of format for it
online services does all the math so the
math will
be done for you which is nice more about
irs free file here there's a link to
that
income above 72 000 free electronic
forms
you fill out and file yourself this is
going to be
much more complex so if you're over the
72 000
then you could use the free forms which
is basically kind of like
doing it doing it by hand you know but
the
the software would be a lot easier if
you have an interview type of software
so let's take a look at that we're going
to choose an irs free file offer that
basically means it looks like to me
that they're looking at a third party
some other company that that puts
together the software that provides an
offer
that can then give the availability of
the free access to their software so we
have to pick one
of these providers that would give us
access so irs free file online options
do your taxes online for free using one
of the free file
irs partner offers are you one of the
70 of americans eligible to file your
taxes for free
online using one of the free file irs
partner offers
uh if your adjusted gross income agi was
72 000 or less
then yes you are so review each
partner's offer to make sure
you qualify for your free federal return
each partner has its own special
offers including some that offer free
state
tax returns you may use the irs free
file online
lookup tool to narrow the number of
partners offers
you may qualify for or browse all offers
to see which are specific to your needs
after selecting one of the free file
offers you will leave the irs.gov
website
so they're basically compiling all these
different software providers it looks
like
and then giving you a research tool
access to the free portion or the free
offer that would be available by these
third-party software providers
so find your best option we can use this
option
use irs free file online lookup to look
or browse all offers
enter simple information select an offer
and file
your taxes online for free what you will
need you're going to need
income statements like the w2s 1099s any
adjustments
to income so obviously if you have your
w-2s and whatnot then you can
enter that information in to see what
your income level will be
any adjustments those are above the line
deductions like ira deductions and
whatnot
your current filing status married
filing jointly or
single or head of household dependent
information if needed so any qualified
dependents quote you know dependents
children and whatnot
so then down below we've got the browse
all offers or
irs free file online lookup tool so if
you go to the one on the left
they're just going to list all the
offers but notice that all the offers
have different requirements to them
so if if you have a situation where you
may not qualify for one
or the other then you might want to go
to the second one which is the irs
free file lookup tool which will give
you a questionnaire
and then suggest the offers that are
most likely to qualify for you
now if you're just looking to pick up
the economic impact payment and your
income is really low and you possibly
don't even need to file a tax return
normally
then you might just browse the offers
over here
and look for the one that is most uh
familiar to you right so that so i the
free
1040 tax return uh is fairly from
the one the one that you know stands out
to me if i go through these
we got the free tax usc these are the
different types of companies
tax slayer we've got the irs free file
program
and this is turbo tax so that one to me
is the biggest name that
that's the name that stands out to me
and i'm not i'm not promoting
turbo tax but it's it's owned by intuit
and i work with quickbooks a lot
so it's a big it's a big company so so
that one stands out to me but their agi
is only 39 000 or less so again they
have a they have a more restrictive
usage of their
of their system but if you're doing
something that's really basic like you
don't normally need to file
then you might want to pick the biggest
brand name you know
and and they might be the most reliable
actual software
to be using if you have higher income
and you're looking for free
software that's going to have a higher
limit or possibly
have more state filings that would be
available to you
then then you can you can pick some of
these other options
if you go through the interview i'm
going to go back one then
and go to like the interview start your
lookup
this will go through like the interview
process right so if i was to say
uh all all and and once we get to the
end of this interview
process it's going to recommend which
software you know qualifies or is within
the range
for us to be able to use so filing
status let's say
married filing joint select the person
you expect
to list first as your primary tax payer
i'm going to say
myself and then answer a few questions
to determine which offer is right for
you
incorrectly answering questions can
affect the irs free file offer
so we're going to say the the age all
fields marked with
asterisks so your age i'm going to say
35
on the age and say next and then
we have estimate your adjusted gross
income so then we have our income
sources down below we have the pre-tax
wages so let's say our wages
are let's just say 15 000. we'll pick it
well below the threshold of the of the
eligibility to do the free file
and so then we have select pre-tax
contributions
so tax deferred retirement plan i'm just
i'm not going to put anything there
and these things you can find basically
on your w-2
normally so you should you should be
able to have like a box that's going to
show
like 12a i think it is for your 401k
health insurance it should be on there
as well 12 b or something with a double
d next to it or something like that
and then work where the federal income
taxes were not withheld
self-employment if you have like a
schedule c type of business
pre-tax pension or other taxable
retirement plans
unemployment insurance if that's
applicable that would be income as well
social security income
so if you're getting social security
benefits that would go here and then a
scholarship or grant
that must be counted as income
investment income other types of income
adjustments to income these being the
above the line deductions
many of these won't apply oftentimes to
many many people right they
they're less you know they apply
sometimes but they're less comp so like
student loan
interest so if you're paying student
loan interest that would be above the
line deduction or adjustment to income
qualified educator expenses which would
be very specific type of deduction
deduction for contributions to the ira
that would probably be the most common
if you're contributing to an ira
health savings account moving expenses
which again is very specific because
it's for the armed forces
alimony paid which is also very specific
because it would only be applicable if
it was alimony before
a certain time period when the when the
and then the penalty for early
withdrawal
not hopefully that doesn't happen
certain employee business expenses
for reservist performing artists again
that's very very limited as well in
others so now
next we're going to say the earned
income track credit
all fields marked with the asterisks are
required how many dependents are under
the age 19
or between 19 and 23 if they are
full-time students do you and your
spouse plan to claim
i'm going to say one here based on your
inputs we believe you and your spouse
are not eligible for the economic
impact for the earned income tax credits
so please confirm that you that you are
eligible
so yes we are eligible i believe we're
eligible
so that's the that's going to be the
refundable tax credits
you and your spouse are not so i'm going
to say yes we are eligible
i would think we are eligible state
residency i'm just going to say
california for the purposes of our
presentation here and then next
so california here and
there we go and then military pay for
our purposes i'm going to say no
if you have military pay then you want
to make sure to pick that up so they can
recommend a proper software for you irs
free file online based on the
information you provide
the offers you are eligible to use are
listed below
review the free file online options and
pick one
which is available to you all offers are
mobile friendly
so you can actually do them on your
phone apparently which again i
just i wouldn't i wouldn't do that i
mean but but you know that's an option
if
you can so you may ver you may verify
the information you input on the table
below the offers
to view the list of forms and schedules
available customer support
and other services go to the company's
website for more information
based on the information you provide
there are seven offers you may be
eligible for
so then you can go through the offers we
got the fileyourtaxes.com
i've never heard of them but 75 000 or
less
so that's pretty good that this credit
is not included though
so so that's and you know if you're
trying to get the
the uh uh the earned income tax credit
then that might not be
applicable and that seems to be the case
for a lot of these
so economic impact tax credit
not included here although they do have
a lot of states
applicable and then here
now this one is included in tax layer
so that's pretty good so they've got uh
so so if you need that there they also
have the military included here
any state of residence wow so tax
lawyers got it yeah they're slaying it
and then the free tax here
so this included for this credit seems
like it's included there so that looks
good
the so the and then and then here's the
here's again turbo tax it's got the
lower limit
but the earned income tax credit is
included
and i and again i i would think that
intuit would be one that has a
the questionnaire that's been most most
tested
you know because it's probably one of
the higher at least paid options here so
then so there they are so you can you
can check those out let's go to the
turbo tax one here
and i'm gonna go view the offer view the
offer
and so now we're obviously on the turbo
tax website which is owned
so the irs free file program here irs
free file program delivered by turbo tax
will help you file both your state and
federal taxes for free
if you qualify so if you can answer yes
to any of these questions is your
adjusted gross income below that
are you active duty military or less
do you qualify for the income i qualify
let's get started
and then you can go through the data
input process for turbo tax i'll stop it
here but
