Wealth Finance

Tax do-it-yourselfers can take advantage of many online tax-prep tools that offer free trialsjust type “tax-prep software” into a search engine to find them. You can prepare your federal return free on a secure server and pay nothing until you file. As we’ve reported, free tax prep and filing options abound.

But even if you use a tax pro, you can save money by doing some of the work yourself. One way is to complete the tax organizer many preparers give their clients at the beginning of the season. The following online tools can help as well. Some may require you to register, though theres no fee for use. And weve included time-saving tips. These tools can help you perform the following tasks:

• Value and tally donations. A TurboTax feature, ItsDeductible, is free online whether you use the software to prepare your taxes or not. Its available year-round. Its competitor, H&R Blocks DeductionPro, is also free year-round. Both use data from independent sources to value donated goods and let you tally contributions and charitable mileage.

When we compared the two a couple years ago, DeductionPro was more convenient. Unlike ItsDeductible, it allowed us to print out estimated values of deducted items. And in a random comparison of values for donated household goods, books, and clothing, DeductionPro estimated higher values more often.

ItsDeductibles advantage is that it can help you value donated stock. Tip: While you cant print out the estimated values of donated goods, you can highlight the pages with the estimates and use the “print screen” function to print the resulting image to use when you prepare your taxes.

• Find out a charitys tax status. To ensure that your donation is deductible, check the charitys status on the IRS database. Note: Some small charities might not be listed, so ask the group for a letter that confirms its tax-exempt status. Churches, mosques, and synagogues can get tax-deductible donations even if theyre not in the database.

• Figure your sales-tax deduction. For tax years 2010 and 2011, you yet again have the choice of deducting the larger of either your state and local sales or state income tax on your federal return. Deducting sales tax is a no-brainer in the seven states with no income tax (Alaska, Florida, Nevada, South Dakota, Texas, Washington, and Wyoming) and the two states that tax only dividends and interest (New Hampshire and Tennessee). If you havent kept all your receipts, you can estimate your annual state sales tax with the IRS Sales Tax Deduction Calculator.

• Evaluate your AMT risk. The IRS AMT Assistant calculator is designed to help taxpayers see whether theyll be subject to the alternative minimum tax, a more onerous taxation system affecting some 4 million taxpayers, most with between $100,000 and $500,000 in adjusted gross income. Tip: The AMT Assistant is worthwhile if youre borderline and want reassurance that you wont fall under the AMT. But if you want an estimate of the damages, this tool wont help. When a grizzled AMT veteran used it, she got a message to fill out the convolutedIRS Form 6251, Alternative Minimum Tax, saving no time at all.

• Follow your money. On www.irs.gov, Where’s My Refund? will track your refund 72 hours after your filed return is accepted. H&R Block at Home tax-prep software offers the same feature in all of its editions that are paid.As weve reported, the IRS also has a new iPhone and Android apps called IRS2Go that performs the same function on your smart phone.

• Fill out the FAFSA. Completing the Free Application for Federal Student Aid can be difficult for many students and their families because the form requires income-tax information but must be submitted before many people have completed their returns. All TurboTax editions allow you to download information directly from your tax-prep software into a FAFSA form before you file your taxes.

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