As the deadline of 30th April for the tax filing is approaching, Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has stepped up efforts to spread awareness about tax filing procedures and help. To make the tax filing process easier, faster and safer, the IRS has been continually educating taxpayers and encouraging them to opt for e-filing than the traditional offline way.
There are several benefits of filing your tax return online. The most obvious being that you can do it from the comfort of your home, anytime of the day and any day of the week. For most of us, this may well be the biggest incentive of all.
Besides, you also have the convenience of filing your return and making any payment if due, at a later date before the deadline. This will help you get an idea of what you owe to the government in time, so that if required, you will have some time to make the arrangement for the money to be paid.
Another advantage of e-filing your tax return is the faster processing of your return. Since much of the e-filing process is automated, any error would be detected there and then and would be highlighted for your correction. This also makes it a more accurate method of filing your return. This way you will rarely ever have to face a situation where your incorrectly filed return is sent back to you in a couple of days time, which is a real possibility if you are mailing your tax return to the IRS.
When e-filing, if you have any tax refund, you can ask for it to be credited to your preferred bank account directly. Without any hassle, the money as due will come in your account in as little as ten days.
E-filing is also very safe. The IRS holds responsibility of keeping all your information safe in their databases. All information and data is processed over encrypted lines, which are very secure and can not be accessed by any external agent. So there is no concern of your personal financial data leaking out or passing into the hands of any other person or external entity.
To top it all, e-filing is free for most of the taxpayers. Around 70% of all taxpayers, which is about 98 million people, are eligible for IRS Traditional Free File. Several software companies offer you this free of charge facility in partnership with IRS.