The main reason I began to use tax preparation software a number of years ago was ¡§comfort¡¨ ¡V I still did my own taxes but wanted to be sure I wasn¡¦t missing out on any potential deductions or savings. Using electronic tax preparation gave me this comfort level and assurance by ¡§holding my hand¡¨ through process, giving me ¡§alerts¡¨ that can guide me through process and let me take advantage of any and all new changes that may help me.

Obviously many people are becoming more comfortable as electronic tax preparation and filing has been growing rapidly. Both number of people ¡§e-filing¡¨ and services available (sometimes for free) to file your taxes directly online are growing. This year IRS has estimated it will receive approximately one third of its individual returns electronically (45 million).

In this report I will explore some of basic advantages to filing online, leading software packages and internet filing systems available, some ratings/rankings and more links should you wish to get more information.

Benefits The advantages of using tax software for your return and filing online are numerous:

„h Fast Refunds - Most refunds are issued within days of acknowledgment „h Direct Electronic Deposit or Payment ¡V Electronic deposit or payment is available „h Acknowledgment of Returns- Receipt of returns are confirmed using an electronic acknowledgment system. „h Fewer errors - Electronically filed tax returns are received virtually error-free, and this is welcome news considering all of complex changes from year to year. (Statistics (US) show 12% of all paper returns have some sort of error.) You also have to consider that when you send a ¡§paper¡¨ return, your information also has to be keyed in by government which increases chance for error through a ¡§key-in¡¨ mistake. „h Easy to use ¡V tax software and web sites let you prepare and file electronically are getting better and easier to use all time. They ¡§hold your hand¡¨ through process, giving you ¡§alerts¡¨ that can guide you through process and let you take advantage of any new changes that may help you. „h Convenience- The federal/State Program is a "one stop shop" tax filing. E-file allows taxpayers to file both their federal and state tax returns in one transmission.

How To: You can either use a software package or a web site to prepare your return and submit it online. The third option is to use a tax preparer that will prepare your taxes and file them electronically for you. Below are leading software packages and more information links for both US and Canada.

United States of America

The cost of preparing your taxes and filing electronically varies dramatically according to complexity of programs you choose. For example there are free internet programs available, or products that range from between $15 to $80. This link identifies a list of partnership companies with IRS that include free internet filing opportunities http://www.irs.gov./efile/display/0,,i1%3D51%26genericId%3D15025,00.html

When it is time to pay your Federal taxes they can now be paid through a new Electronic Federal Tax Payment System web site. www.officialpayments.com

Visit IRS web site (http://www.irs.gov ) for helpful information on e-filing. The IRS also allows you to search for official e-file preparer near you by zip code.

Packages Available: Some of most popular products available are listed below. These companies also have a tax web site that you can access, and in most cases are also selling more complex ¡§deluxe¡¨ versions.

Initiated or not, both spouses are put in situation of requiring a lawyer, usually for first time. At $100 to $300, sometimes more per hour, you fight to get 50% of your assets, only to give a large portion of it to your lawyer. It could amount to 10% or more of your half of assets. That means you are really dividing 80% of total marriage assets, instead of 100%.

Why are you sharing 20% of your marriage assets with your lawyer? This money is yours and you children’s!

Understandably, both sides are unprepared, having multiple issues to deal with at once, so they hand over control of their lives to their lawyer. They feel their lawyer will only think of and work for them. You must realize your lawyer has hundreds if not thousands of clients. You are only a file number to them.

If you saw your lawyer at store there's a good chance he or she will not recognize you. Your lawyer took your case,not because they care about you, but because they care about income you will provide. The lawyer would have taken your spouse's case had he or she gone to them first.

Why then would you let your lawyer make these life altering decisions for you? Knowing this, why would you hand over control of your divorce, your life, your future to your lawyer? Under this situation, when divorce is over, both sides feel taken advantage of by their spouse and their lawyer. They have spent $100’s to $1000’s of dollars unnecessarily.

This scenario can be avoided by preparing for your divorce in same manner as you would buy a TV.

When you decide to buy a TV, would you go to store and tell salesman to pick a TV, any TV for you, leave store knowing you'll get whatever TV salesman wants you to have?

NO WAY!