Save Money, Prepare Your Own Tax Return
One of the things I don’t understand during tax time is the number of people who actually fall for the tax refund advance scheme. This is where large tax preparers offer you an advance on your refund. You go to them to prepare your income tax, you pay them a fee and then they ask you if you’d like your money now. You start seeing dollar signs and you say, ‘heck yeah!!’. Well, let me just say, you just threw money away.
First of all, they are not doing you a favor by ‘advancing’ your refund. This is actually what’s called an anticipation loan. For a fee, which comes out to a pretty high percentage, they will give you your refund, minus the amount of the fee, and your check will go to them since you already have your money.
Another thing I see are people who I know make less than $30,000 a year paying to get their returns prepared for them. Some of them pay as much as $85 dollars for an easy tax filing. If you don’t make over $35,000 a year, don’t have a lot to claim, you will do better filing your own taxes using a number of the free services available online. If you don’t own a computer, the public libraries usually have computers that you can use. What more, there will probably be volunteers there who can help you through the process. Check with your library.
If you file electronically, you can usually get your refund in as little as 10 days if you are having them deposit it directly to your account. It may take a little longer if you want a check mailed to you.
