On July 15, 1993 Walter S. Mossberg, author and creator of weekly "Personal Technology" column in The Wall Street Journal, was quoted as saying: “The promise of ‘paperless office,’ [and home] where documents are entirely created, distributed, read and stored on computers, has been about as reliable as promise of a check in mail.”

Now, almost a decade later, that statement is as true as it was then and possibly even worse! Many still have mind set that everything that is on their computer must also be printed out, never of course to be seen again! You WILL have paperwork, in some form or another, until you die. It’s a fact, a part of life that will not go away. The truth is you will continue to have piles and junk cluttering your desk unless you take control of situation and learn how to handle everything that lands on your desk.

Take a second and look at your desk, your countertop, dining room table, or what ever you call your desk or workspace. How much of your desktop can you actually see and use? Do you even know what’s in those piles? Does it look like something might be starting to “grow” from all yesteryears of lunches, snacks, and dinners you’ve had there? Do you have so many gadgets and doodads, personal items and pictures scattered about on your desk? When was last time you saw whole top of your desk and it saw a can of polish?

Here are just three interesting statistics from two polls from Coopers & Lybrand and USA Weekend:

>>The average desk worker has 36 hours worth of work on their desk and wastes up to 3 hours a week just “looking” for STUFF!

>>7.5% of all documents get lost and 3% get misfiled.

>>Professionals spend 5 to 15% of their time reading information, but up to 50% looking for it!

Think about your desk for a minute and how your days play out:

>>Estimate how many hours of work you have piled on your desk?

>>Estimate how much time you waste each week looking for stuff on your desk?

>>How many documents did you lose or misfile last year?

>>Are you scheduling regular time to read?

>>What do you do with article, magazine, or memo you have read?

>>After reading, if you keep, can you find it if needed?

Ten Tips to Clean Off Your Desk

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.