CPAs Package

Back-office accounting to save you time and money.

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Business Package

Reduce your monthly costs, get guaranteed quality and FAST results.

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Franchise Package

Know what each store is doing the NEXT day. Don't guess about your cashflow.

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Family CFO Package

Get all the perks of an in-house bookkeeping team for your Family CFO.

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Tax Preparation and the Free File Alliance

In 2002 the IRS started the Free File Alliance. The Free File Alliance is a program intended to encourage taxpayers to file their tax returns electronically. The program meets this need by partnering with private tax preparation software companies to offer qualified applicants free (although limited) versions of their product.

Qualification is usually based on income level. For example, TurboTax’s offering, the TurboTax Tax Freedom Edition, is only available to those individuals make $31,000 or less. For CompleteTax, that ceiling is $57,000. In some cases, the active military can qualify under looser guidelines.

To be certain, the participating companies are still looking to make a profit and would rather have you buy their product than use it for free. Accordingly, the free versions don’t have the feature set of the pay versions. They also typically lack tech or legal support. Many free offerings do not have state tax return capability. So these tax preparation software packages are best suited for only the most simple of tax returns, with only uncomplicated deductions. The Free File Alliance program might not be a good fit for many taxpayers.

Keep in mind the money you save is only relative to the amount you might pay for a tax preparation service. Online tax preparation services can assign a live accountant to do your taxes fast, often overnight, and accurately for much less than you think.