This is the sixth year that free tax filing options have been available for qualifying individuals at the IRS website.

There are 19 companies that offer free tax filing (you can see the list here), and each has their own set of rules regarding who qualifies for free filing.

Most programs offer free filing for taxpayers who earn less than $54,000, however many of the companies also require you to be over age 50. 

Turbo Tax and H&R Block’s Tax Cut are two of the companies participating in this program.

Cara at The Household Helper tagged me, and wants to know…

4 jobs I have had:
1. Cookie girl at Kay’s Good Cookies (high school)
2. Sales clerk at toy store (fun, fun job!)
3. Accountant/tax preparer
4. Financial planner

4 films I could watch over and over:
1. City of Angels
2. Grease
3. The Wizard of Oz
4. The Sound of Music

4 Places I have lived:
1. Cincinnati, OH
2. Kansas City, MO
3. Lee’s Summit, MO
4. Independence, MO

4 Favorite TV shows:
1. Monday Night Football (does that count?)
2. Any show on the Food Network
3. CSI
4. Law & Order

4 Favorite Foods:
1. Mac & cheese
2. Shrimp
3. Anything with cheese in it
4. Bread!

by Cara of The Household Helper

What does it
mean to be frugal?  The answer will depend on who you ask; some
people will say that it means to be a penny pinching person who washes and
re-uses ziplock bags.

Other people
feel that being "frugal," is simply learning how to manage your money in a
smarter, more productive way so you are able to live a life that you want to
live. Now that doesn’t sound so bad, does it?

Kelly invited me to call in to Mom’s Morning Show today to talk about my free teleclass next week on ‘getting out of debt’.

Kelly and Tishia are always fun to talk to, so I really enjoyed my time on the show today!

If you’d like to listen, click here.

To sign up for or to learn more about my free teleclass next week, please click here!

by Darrel Hawes @ Basic Accounting for Small Business

To locate tax professionals, your best bet
is to ask your local colleagues for referrals. Based on the response, I
suggest selecting two or three and asking the following questions.

This
exercise will take a bit of time; however recognize that you will
likely keep whomever you select for several years, so some due
diligence will definitely work in your favor.

1. Do You Offer a Free Initial Consultation?

After
selecting two or more tax professionals for consideration, schedule an
initial consultation. Often, this will be provided at no cost; it gives
them an opportunity to sell you on their services.

During the
actual meeting, be proactive. Be open about your current activities and
future plans. Ask what services they recommend you buy from them, and
why. Ask what information they will need in order to do the work. Ask
what you can do to make their job easier. Perhaps you can provide your
accounting data on a more frequent basis or in a different format and
get a preferred rate.

Continue Reading 10 Questions to Ask a Tax Professional… Before You Hire One

Many people wonder how inquiries affect their credit score?  Does it hurt your credit score to check your credit, or if a potential employer checks your credit?  Here’s the scoop on how inquiries affect your credit score…

Ten percent of your credit score comes from applications made to your credit report.  Each time a creditor or a lender takes a look at your credit report to determine whether or not to extend you credit an additional inquiry is placed on your credit report.

If you’ve checked your credit report lately, you may have noticed inquiries from businesses you might not have heard of.  Not all of these inquiries have an effect on your credit score, so don’t panic!

The inquiries that DO affect your credit score are those from your own credit applications.  When you apply for a credit card, auto loan, or mortgage, you give the lender permission to look at your credit report.  This places a voluntary inquiry on your credit report and these are the inquiries that do have an effect on your credit score.

Continue Reading How Inquiries Affect Your Credit Score

A few days ago I posted about creating credit resolutions for the new year.  I thought now would be a good time to review what makes up your credit or FICO score.

There are five key elements that comprise your credit score: payment history, outstanding debts, credit history age, inquiries, and account types.  Each of these items is weighted differently when calculating your FICO score.  Payment history is 35% of the score, outstanding debt is 30%, credit history age is 15%, and both inquiries and account types are 10% of your total FICO score.

So… what do each of these elements include and more importantly, what’s considered good and what’s bad for each component?

Payment History
Your payment history includes the details of how you’ve been paying your bills - i.e., whether you’ve been paying them on time, or even at all.  Each of your creditors reports your payments as on time or late.  Late payments are reported as being 30-, 60-, 90-, and 120-days late.  After six months of non-payment, many creditors charge-off your account, deeming it as uncollectible.  The more recent the late payments are, the worse the effect it is on your credit score.  Timely monthly payments boost your score in this area.

Continue Reading What makes up your credit score?

In a flurry of last minute activity, Congress passed several bills
including the Tax Increase Prevention Act of 2007, signed into law by President Bush on
December 26, 2007. This law extends the AMT patch for one year, beginning
January 1, 2007. The Act increases the AMT exemption amounts as
follows:

The Act also allows taxpayers to use most nonrefundable personal credits to
offset AMT liability in 2007 (as was the case in 2006).

The Mortgage Forgiveness Debt Relief Act of 2007 (the Act) was passed by Congress on December 18, 2007, and was signed into law by President Bush on December 20, 2007.

The primary objective of this new law is to help beleaguered homeowners avoid foreclosure by eliminating the adverse federal tax consequences associated with debt forgiveness.

The Act also extends the deduction for mortgage insurance premiums through 2010, expands the time period for a surviving spouse to use the higher home sale exclusion, and excludes from income certain state and
local tax breaks given to volunteer emergency responders.

Continue Reading Deduction for Mortgage Insurance Premiums Extended

Would you be surprised to hear that 2007 was a winning year on Wall Street?  My guess is that most people would be surprised to hear this.  Most people tend to focus on the negative, not the positive.  But in reality…

• The Dow Jones ended up 6.4%
• The S&P 500 ended up 3.5%
• And the Nasdaq ended up 9.8%

These may not be earth-shattering numbers, but after the volatility in the second half of 2007, the fall of the dollar and the rise in oil prices, these are solid returns for ‘07.