You don’t have to pay someone to do your taxes for you. You can
prepare and file your taxes for free with just a little bit of
preparation and knowledge of basic tax principles. This is
especially true if your financials aren’t complex. Most people
can understand the basic tax form so there’s no reason why they
shouldn’t be able to fill out their own tax forms. Let’s take a
look at what’s involved in preparing your own taxes. Here are a
few terms you should know before we begin calculating your
taxes. What’s an Individual tax return? It’s a tax form filled
out by a person, not a corporation, not an estate, not a trust,
or a partnership. What determines whether you get an IRS refund
or you owe money? Let’s look at the basic tax formula. Well take
a look at your paycheck. Each time you get paid you also give
some of your pay to the IRS. The IRS takes the money and holds
it for when at the end of the year you have to pay taxes, you’ve
already been contributing. As we work, we pay. It’s called
withholding. At the