Tax Preparation Software
Do not use this as your final word. Any software or press who recommends not using a professional in favor of software is discounting the importance of a smart human being helping you with your taxes. Computer software cannot negotiate or argue your position with the IRS or State Tax Authorities. Computer software can not think, does not have intuition, and will not be able to give you tax advice specific to your situation. Tax software cannot do for you what a human being can do since the computer is only a sophisticated sorting machine without wisdom, experience, or judgement.
Tax Tips and Information Services
Be careful of tax tips and IRS information. All information produced by the IRS is subject to interpretation. Even though the federal government is supposed to evenly enforce the laws throughout the United States, the fact is those laws are administered by human beings. These same human beings are tax auditors, revenue agents, and collection agents. In over 30 years of tax representation before the IRS, the IRS has been known to hold varrying opinions from office to office and even from auditor to auditor and agent to agent.
Tax Laws and Loopholes?
Be extra careful reading the tax code, since it is not written in plain English. Tax Accounting like Financial Accounting is a foriegn language that sounds like English but it is not English. You can be Married on one IRS form and Single on another depending upon the definition. Every word is defined and the definitions are not in the dictionary. For example, Head of Household does not mean you pay the bills but means you lived apart from your spouse for over six months and paid the household expenses for the residence where you lived with your child for over 6 months of the year. Even the words "household expenses" and "your child" have meanings you may not suspect.
