Many of the deals websites out there (check out Slickdeals.net and Gottadeal.com as well as Dealnews.com for starters) will notify you when companies like Intuit offer free online TurboTax applications for users who show up within a certain time frame. The HR Block guys similarly offer free TaxCut software signups from time to time.

If you are wondering what the catch is, because obviously these companies can’t make money by giving their programs away online, then good for you. The first step to avoid being a sucker who gets scammed is to be aware of what makes sense, what motivates people and companies, and trying to see the find print.

In this case, the fine print comes in the form of add-on offers. Depending on which deal on tax software you get, it might be free to input all the data and print the return, but there is a charge to e-file. Another strategy is to offer free Federal Income Tax preparation and free e-file, but to charge for doing your state income tax return. Unless you live in New York, California, or another state with complicated state income taxes, chances are your state return is pretty easy to do by yourself. Of course, there is always the “subscription” trap, where you think you are getting something for free, but are actually signing up for a $99.95 annual subscription to something. Just make sure you don’t enter a credit card number and you should be OK.

These sites also require registration and while these are legitimate companies that don’t benefit from spam or overly aggressive marketing, you can be sure they’ll be in touch sooner or later.

In Colorado, for example, the State of Colorado offers every resident free online e-filing of their state income taxes. For 90% of residents, all that you need to do is plug in a handful of numbers from your completed IRS Form 1040 tax return (they even tell you which line numbers to use) and then hit submit. (There is more to it for certain circumstances like partial-year residents, land income, and so on.) In other words, you would be a fool to buy TurboTax State edition if you live in Colorado.

If you don’t want to watch the deal websites (which is really the easiest way) you can also pop onto the main product webpages at turbotax.com and taxcut.com and see if they are running a public deal. However, you might have to dig around a little bit. After all, these companies don’t want to offer free software to someone who is coming there to buy it!

More personal finance tips and advice

Finance Investing Banking Information and Eduction

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Free TurboTax Software Online – Deals on Tax Programs originally published at Finance Gourmet

To avoid making tax moves that aren’t worth the trouble, there is a simple strategy.

Always calculate the real dollar amount of any tax strategy prior to implementation.

Tax Savings Strategy Example #1:

The Top 10 End of Year Tax Strategy Tips lists always include the barely usable advice to pay your January mortgage early. By paying your January mortgage bill in December, you get to deduct the interest from your payment in 2009.

There is a big, fat catch, however. Although you do get to deduct 13 months worth of mortgage interest in 2009, you will only get to deduct 11 months worth of interest in 2010 unless you make sure to make that January payment in December again next year. This will be true until you finally bite the bullet and take just 11 months worth of deductions, or you pay off your mortgage. Is it worth it? Maybe.

Calculate the real dollar amount of tax savings from paying your Jan. 2010 mortgage in December, 2009.

Grab a mortgage statement and find out how much of your monthly mortgage payment goes to interest. What you find might surprise you. If you pay your homeowners insurance and property taxes through your mortgage company (a common practice) a substantial chunk of your monthly payment goes toward those, and you do not get to deduct those items by paying them early. Likewise, if you have had the same mortgage for many years, or you have a 15-year mortgage, a big hunk of that monthly bill might actually be going toward principal. (The horror!

A $2,000 monthly mortgage payment might breakdown as $500 per month into escrow (for the taxes and insurance) and $500 per month going toward principal, leaving just $1,000 per month paying interest.

For a taxpayer in the 25% tax bracket, paying that extra mortgage payment a year earlier will result in a tax savings of $250 in real dollar numbers. Conversely, that will be the approximate cost of forgetting to do the same thing next year. Even worse, is if the taxpayer forgets to do the same thing next year, AND forgets to properly account for the fact on their 2010 taxes.

Tax Savings Blunder Example:

Assume our taxpayer pays 13 mortgage payments in 2009 thanks to the advice in a year-end tax savings tips article. He saves $250 on his 2009 taxes.

Let’s that come 2010, our taxpayer is very busy at year end racking up sales and commissions to increase his income. He doesn’t have time to read any of those tax advice year-end articles and isn’t really thinking about Federal income taxes as he flies around the country trying to make sales.

Come April 13th, he fires up TurboTax or some other tax preparation software and types in all the numbers. In the tax deductions section he inputs his mortgage information. If he used TurboTax to file taxes in 2009 or imported his 2009 tax returns, he might get a flag about entering his mortgage info, and maybe not. Even if he does, there is no guarantee that he will pay any attention to it as he rushes to complete his taxes. After all, entering in the mortgage information from the 1099-DIV the mortgage company sends is a no brainer, right?

Unfortunately, he includes all 12 months worth of interest on his 2010 income taxes. Since he did not pay the January 2011 mortgage payment in December 2010, he actually can only deduct the remaining 11 interest payments in 2010.

In 2011 or 2012, or taxpaying hero gets a phone call from the IRS. It’s informational audit time and the IRS would like to see additional documentation regarding his 2009, and 2010, mortgage deductions. The taxpayer does the smart thing and runs to a tax attorney, accountant, or enrolled agent, and finds out to his dismay that he owes back taxes and a penalty. Chances are, he’ll get out of any fraud trouble, but it still won’t be cheap to pay up, especially if it takes two or three years to get around to the audit and that interest payment has added up.

Tax Advice Worth It?

Is it worth a $250 savings to follow this tax advice? You bet it is! Why pay extra when you don’t have to. But, if the above example sounds a lot like you, you might want to think twice, or make a really big note in your 2010 Taxes file.

But, what if the taxpayer is in the 10% tax bracket? Don’t laugh, it’s possible for high-income taxpayers to save enough money through deductions to get down to a tax bracket of 10%.

Then, the above example is worth just $100. Many other tips and advice will produce raw dollar amounts of tax savings of even less, sometimes just $10 or $20 for a complicated strategy that involves collecting a lot of receipts and getting a bunch of tax forms just right.

In the end, you are the judge of what anything is worth to you. The important thing is that you know what its real value to you is before you waste time and money on something that has limited value.

Tax Deductions Value

One final, very important thing to consider when determining the cash value of any tax savings advice is its possible impact on other tax deductions. To determine whether or not this need concern you, pay attention to any tax credits or tax deductions that are phased out or that have income limits. Depending upon the tax deduction or credit and where the tax savings created by the strategy used occur (above the line or below the line) the value of a tax-savings tip may actually be much higher than just the amount directly created by the tax avoidance strategy.

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2009 End of Year Tax Strategies – Calculate Dollar Amount of Tax Moves originally published at Finance Gourmet

A real hot deals website will have deals from all over, not just certain stores and shopping sites. Coupon codes and free shipping codes will be included for free on deal postings without having to register or being directed to another site.

Also, most of the best deals websites have a forum where users can post comments and discuss the deals. The forums are a great way to see just how good a deal is, whether you find it on that site or somewhere else. Deal site users are savage and they will quickly point out the flaws in any deal that looks good, but has a catch.

As an added bonus, some of the most honest, hard hitting reviews on the Internet can be found in these forums. Don’t look for reviews, just look for commentary on the deals. If there is a great price on a TV, you can be sure that there are plenty of users weighing in on whether or not it is worth the money, even at the discounted price.

Here are some great deals websites that I’ve been using over the last few years that always seem to come through with the best hot deals out there.

Top 4 Hot Deals Websites

1. Slickdeals.net – Only the best deals make the front page, but there are hundreds posted each day in the forums. Users can vote thumbs up or down to help rank deals.
2. Gottadeal.com
3. DealNews.com
4. Woot.com – Woot only offers one deal a day, so it can be hit or miss whether there is anything you want. But, for the 2 seconds it takes to check every day, you will find some of the best deals online. They do offer a lot of refurbished products, though, so make sure you read the whole description and decide is refurbished worth it.

Do you have other hot deal websites that you use to save money?

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Top Deals Websites to Save Money Shopping originally published at Finance Gourmet

That being said, it isn’t always easy to find ways to save money.  Many family expenses seem pretty fixed and finding ways to make cuts can be hard.  The savings tips and saving tricks found in most money magazines, newspaper financial sections, and finance websites have been around the block a few times.  Many have lost their effectiveness, others were just never very helpful in the first place.

Saving Tips and Tricks Section

I’m happy to announce that today the Finance Gourmet website will begin building a new money saving tips section for our readers.  We’ll repeat some of the oldies but goodies (there is, after all, a reason that they are oldies but goodies).  However, we’ll also tell you about money saving tips that you might not already know about.  Some of them are easy, and some of them are harder, but they will all be worthwhile tools to add to your financial knowledge arsenal.

And, I guarantee that it won’t be the same old, "Make a budget, and cut back," advice you’ve seen a thousand times before.

Keep an eye out for our first money saving tips later today!  Or, do yourself a favor and grab the Finance Gourmet Feed instead.  That way, you won’t have to remember to get your tips, they’ll come automatically to you.

— The Finance Gourmet

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Money Saving Tips and Tricks for the Whole Family originally published at Finance Gourmet

The best part is that it is really easy and you don’t really have to do anything once you set it up.

Basically, you go to Mileage Rewards Dining website and create a Dining Rewards password to go with your United frequent flyer miles number.  Then, you register your credit cards with the dining miles rewards program by entering the credit card number, expiration date, and so on.

Once your credit cards are registered, then you earn miles whenever you eat at a participating United Mileage Plus Dining restaurant if you pay with any of the credit cards you registered.  That’s it!  It couldn’t be any simpler.

You don’t have to remember a coupon, you don’t have to remember to tell the waiter, or give someone your Mileage Rewards number or anything.  It’s all electronic behind the scenes.  You pay like normal, and voila, free points in your account. As a double bonus, this has nothing to do with the regular credit card rewards points you are earning.  So, for example, if you buy dinner with your Capital One Rewards Credit Card, you still earn Capital One No Hassle Miles for the dinner PLUS the United Miles.

For each dollar you spend, you get one free United frequent flyer mile.  But, from now until June 30th, you get double points on the Dining Rewards program so that is 2 free miles per dollar spent eating out at restaurants.  Depending on the kind of person you are, this can add up to big points.  Eat out twice a week at $40 each and that is 160 miles earned per week without flying anywhere!

If you take clients out for meals, try and setup your meetings at restaurants in the program and you can earn points for those meals too.  Pretty soon, you’ll be setting up your free vacation.

There is no cost and no charge to register your credit cards, so I registered every credit card I have.  I never even look at the list of participating restaurants.  I just go out to eat where I want to eat and just by coincidence hit rewards restaurants all the time.

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United Rewards – Mileage Plus Dining from United Airlines originally published at Finance Gourmet

TurboTax For Free

TurboTax offers a marketing gimmick where they allow you to do your taxes on the online version of TurboTax for free.  You only have to pay when you print or e-file your return.  But, who says you have to print anything?

When you have finished inputting all of your information, and TurboTax has finished crunching all of the numbers, switch to the form view where you actually are looking at an electronic version of the tax form.  Copy the numbers down onto a Form 1040 that you printed off of the IRS website, and voila.  You taxes are done, and all for free!

Obviously, if you have to generate a bunch of extra paperwork or IRS Schedules, this isn’t the method for you.  But, keep in mind that many of the worksheets that TurboTax fills out with their program are not for filing, but rather just for the taxpayer to use and keep.  So, don’t let those throw you off.

If you are just filing a Form 1040 and a Schedule A (Itemized Deductions) then you are just fine.  Even a Schedule C (Business) is not a problem so long as you have a simple one-person operation that you run out of your home.

Anything much more complicated than this is probably a little too much to trust that you are going to get all of the right forms filled in and put together.  But, this trick should cover about 80% to 90% of the people who do their taxes without a professional.

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Save Money On Taxes Trick originally published at Finance Gourmet

Without further ado, Finance Gourmet presents the Real Deal Guide to Saving Money on Holiday Shopping With the Internet series.

“Hi.  My name is Brian, and I’m a dealaholic.”

Dealaholic

A person who is addicted to great deals.

There, I’ve admitted it.  Don’t worry, I won’t be moving on to any of the other steps, because I love deals and I don’t want to stop.  I’ve developed some tips and tricks that anyone can use to find great deals, even if you aren’t super Internet savvy or a high-end computer geek.  (We are purposely ignoring any of the complex or time consuming methods.  These are the methods that are worthwhile for event the casual deal hunter.)

Best Great Deal Sites On The Internet for Finding Good Deals

The TV news will send you to SmartBargains.com and maybe Overstock.com.  Then, of course (yawn), you can find good deals on eBay.  They might also mention a coupon site, or shopping.com, or my personal favorite, “Hey, did you know that you can use Google to search for products and pricing?”   Nooooo.  Really?

Don’t get me wrong, all of those sites can be very useful, but they are the no brainers of online deals.  If you want real deals, you want sites that are dedicated to deals.  Sites that have large, vocal, online communities who won’t stand for a “deal” that was posted because someone bought some advertising or wants to move some slow merchandise.  In other words, you want sites that have real deals all the time.  These are those sites.

Top 10 Best Christmas Holiday Deal Websites

1. Slickdeals.net  – Simple clean front page with only the best deals of the day.  Search the “Hot Deals” forum for great deals on specific items.  (Note that it is DOT NET not DOT COM).
2. Dealnews.com – A full page of deals every day, each one the best price they could find.
3. GottaDeal.com – Another page jammed full of deals from around the Internet
4. DealLocker.com – Looks like just a coupon site (it has good ones), but look for the Secret Amazon Discount Tool which allows you to search Amazon by category, keyword, and discount range (10% to 90% off).  Most importantly, it allows you to limit your results to items eligible for Amazon Prime which means they are also eligible for free shipping and the Amazon return policy.  No more “great deals” from some affiliated merchant with $9.99 shipping on a $2.14 item.
5. FatWallet.com – Slightly irritating for making you register, but you can find some good deals and if you want to put in the effort, get some cash back too.
6. DealCoupon.com – Run by the DealNews.com people, it lists online coupon codes.  Use it to find free shipping for your deals!
7. XPBargains.com – Mostly just technology stuff, but if that’s what you want, these guys come through.
8. DealCatcher.com – Deals sorted by site.  So, if you need a deal at a certain store to use that gift card, go here.
9. BFAds.net – The website that started all the lawsuits.  They post the sales for the day after Thanksgiving before they come out so you know whether or not that great deal you found today will be a great deal later, or if you should wait for the holiday sales to start.
10. BeatMyPrice.com – So, you think you’ve found the best deal out there?  Check and find out!  At BeatMyPrice.com you input the item and the page you found it on.  If they find a better price, they’ll tell you.  If not, your price becomes the new “best” price and those who come after you will find it.  See, buying gifts and helping others, now that is what Christmas is all about!

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Save Money On Christmas Holiday Shopping originally published at Finance Gourmet