Options for Tax Season

With 2012 well underway and April 15 looming, tax season has come. Filing a return might not be anyone's idea of a good time, except if that person happens to be an accountant, IRS auditor, or mental patient, but it need not be a hassle, either. In the 21st century, there are more options than ever for dealing with tax time. rnHere are some of the most basic methods for taking care of taxes: rnFile for free online: Turbo Tax is the granddaddy of online tax programs, and scores of other websites and downloadable return tools are available now as well. On the plus side, most of these programs can be used for both state and federal returns, are available at minimal cost, if any, and calculate refunds automatically. The down side? There are a few minuses, namely that it can be easy to miss deductions that, say, a seasoned San Francisco tax preparation expert would be cognizant of. Novice tax filers also face better odds of making minor mistakes in their returns and perhaps landing on an unscrupulous company depending on where Google takes them in their hunt for a free tax filing website. rnGo through a CPA firm: It costs a little more, but going with a Certified Public Accountant (available through San Francisco CPA firms and elsewhere) might be the best odds for crunching one's personal numbers and getting an error-free tax return filed. These are the folks who went to school specifically to learn how to deal with money, the whizzes with numbers and keeping the financial books. It's like having a financial wizard at one's beck and call. rnGo to a national company: If filing taxes online is like making one's lunch at home and going through a CPA firm is like going to a fancy restaurant, national companies like HR Block are the fast food restaurants of tax season. They get the job done fast, and they generally get it done cheap, but the product they offer isn't always filling and doesn't always sit well. For reliable, superior quality, it's sometimes best to look elsewhere. rnFile by hand: People still do this? Are these the same people with dial-up Internet connections and Reader's Digest subscriptions? The same people who complain about long-distance charges? Then again, if someone has been filing by hand for 50 years and has the process down pat, why change now? rnDon't file: In the classic 1959 film Some Like It Hot, musicians Jack Lemmon and Tony Curtis witness a gangland killing and flee to Miami to avoid detection. With their luck, they wind up in the same hotel as the gangsters they're running from, in town for a Mafia convention. At the convention, the Mafia boss announces: "Thank you, fellow opera-lovers. It's been ten years since I elected myself president of dis organization... an' if I say so myself, you made duh right choice. Let's look at duh record: In duh lass fissel year we made a hundred an' twelve million dollars before taxes... only we ain't paying no taxes!" rnThis final method isn't advised."