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Paying the Tax Man
by Hermit
Maybe you’re all smarter than me (in fact, it’s even likely!), but have I spent several hours each year for the past several years tracking down tax forms, reading the tax booklet, reading numbers from tables, and hoping I didn’t make a math mistake. This year, as I was browsing utah.gov, I stumbled across Utah’s TaxExpress Online Filing, a free tax filing service provided by our very own state government. If you meet the rather generous requirements (AGI less than $100,000 and took the standard deduction on your federal taxes, to name a few) you can do your state tax return through Utah’s web site. Mine took about 10 minutes. I asked for a check in the mail, and it was delivered within a week. If you end up owing taxes, you can pay through the site as well.
I’m not entirely sure how long this has been around (the information on TaxExpress insinuates it has been there for several years), but kudos to those on the hill for making it work. Yeah, there are some minor usability issues, but I’m rather picky about such things. Being rather naive about tax law, I’d hoped for a few more explanations (most can be found in the FAQ on the TaxExpress home page rather than during the file), but I was still happy with the system. I would use it again next year.
You can find TaxExpress at https://secure.utah.gov/taxexpress/taxexpressweb.
Also for those of you who were unaware, the IRS lists vendors who will provide free federal online tax preparation and filing to certain groups of people (AGI under around $35,000, or those under 21 or older than 62, or anyone on active duty in the military). The requirements for FreeFile vary from company to company, so go to irs.govirs.gov and check their list. Yes, there are companies on the list you will recognize, like H&R Block and TurboTax.
While I still don’t like paying taxes, I do appreciate the government’s help in making it significantly easier to do.
Posted by Hermit on February 12, 2004 07:59 PM
