Ask Joanne's eNews

Getting ready for Tax time - How long to hang on to documents, resources and information for tax return preparation.

Yes, I know this isn't really about life on the internet, but as I prepare to do my tax return, it occured to me that others might benefit from a few links to internet resources.

Information from the IRS about document retention, business record keeping and tax law changes for 2004: Record Keeping for Individuals: http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p552.pdf
Business Record Keeping: http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p583.pdf
New Tax information for 2004: http://www.irs.gov/formspubs/article/0,,id=109876,00.html

For those who have an accountant do their tax return, it is still in your best interest to know about available deductions so that you can provide your accountant with detailed supporting documents. The better prepared you are, the more quickly and effectively your accountant can do his/her job.

Here are links to information resources for small business tax deductions from Bankrate.com and Nolo.com, small business tax FAQ.

For individuals and businesses preparing their own tax returns, TurboTax is an excellent tool. If you don't have a business, Turbo Tax Basic is all you need. If you do have a business, Turbo Tax Deluxe should have everything you need.

TurboTax uses a very easy to follow "interview" that asks you questions about your financial life and fills in all the correct forms with the appropriate information, you don't have to do the math, so you know there are no computation errors. You can also use TurboTax to electronically file your tax return. Click here for TurboTax products from Amazon.

On another note: I have been using Mozilla's FireFox browser since the December Newsletter and it's working beautifully - no popups! It can be downloaded free at: http://www.mozilla.org/products/