Prepare Your Taxes with Mobile Phone Apps

Our smart mobile phones should come in handy in simplifying our lives when it comes to preparing our taxes. Yup, your cell phone is not only for surfing the Web for Facebook and Youtube, you can also use it as your own tax gadget now.

Here’s great news for you: there are free applications out there that could help you see results in as little as half an hour–it’s pretty amazing stuff. If you want a more streamlined tax preparation experience for your 2011 taxes next year, you should keep watch of these free to download software once tax season starts. And so, without further ado, here they are:

 

Snap Tax from Turbo Tax

 

Why it’s great: File your W2 form directly from your cell phone by simply

snapping a photo of it with your Android or iPhone. Pretty cool, right? You can manually input your relevant information prior to taking the picture or use your cell phone to answer the questions if you take a photo of your blank W2- form first. This nifty application’s accuracy is great, just make sure you write eligibly and check the imported file (picture in your phone) for the faithfulness of the numbers.

 

 

 

 

 

Who it’s for:

•Incomes covered by W2 forms

•So far it only files simple tax files, since it can only submit a 1040EZ

•If your income as a single individual does not equal or exceed $80,000 or a combined income of $100,000 for legally married couples.

•Unemployment

•Interest

•No independents

•No real estate

•No stocks sold

Once you’re ready to file that tax form, you need to purchase a filing permit (license) from Inuit, Inc. for $14.00. Prices may vary, depending on the pricing of Intuit who owns Turbo Tax.

 

Tax Caster by Intuit, Inc.

Why It’s Great: You get a visual representation of the tax refund you qualify for, like the speedometer of your car as you step on the gas pedal. This is fun and free application to have on your phone whilst you are in the midst of your tax preparation ritual. You will need your relevant documents with you as work with Tax Caster. Sounds like it’s not much but trust us, you’ll love the on-time visual representation of tax refund you will get, making that necessary filing and grouping of your papers a bit easier to bear as you trudge ahead with your tax preparation. Tax Caster though only provides a ballpark figure with the tax refund you will get, since it only asks you pretty basic questions. You are asked only about the most frequent tax deductions like student loans, mortgage, IRAs, etc.

 

Who It’s for:

Turbo Tax is a great helper for you if you want a general idea on how your total tax will appear if you’re thinking about adjusting some declarations in your last-minute tax preparations. Example is if you want to declare your capital gains for the tax year. This tax mobile app is also great outside of tax season. You can see firsthand the effect on your tax refunds some significant milestone changes in your life. Let’s say your new baby is born or you finally bought that new house.

 

 IRS2Go

This is the mobile version of the always fun IRS Refund Status section from the official website of IRS.

IRS2Go monitors the status of your tax return within 72 hours of submission. You also get invaluable tax tips on your mobile phone directly from IRS.

 

Why It’s Great: You get to call an IRS agent to assist you immediately with regards to an issue in your tax refunds with your IRS2Go application. You can also subscribe to the Twitter channel of IRS.

 

This coming tax season on the first quarter of 2012, make sure you have a look at the available mobile phone applications that is available to help you. If you are antsy about sharing your profile to a third-party provider, be extra-careful and verify the background of the company offering such service.