Free File, Free Efile or Free E-file?

Free File, Free Efile, or Free E-file what is the correct terminology for sending your federal 1040EZ, 1040A, or 1040 income tax forms to the IRS online? The official IRS.gov website uses the term “Free File” in links and wording as, let’s say, their very own product used to file your federal income tax returns for free online. Within the same sentence on the IRS.gov website you will notice the use of the word “e-file” in all lower case letters. The word e-file is used not just by the IRS but also by income tax preparation service providers to mean the electronic transmission of your prepared income tax return, free or otherwise.

Free E-File, not to be confused with IRS Free File, technically means that the electronic transmission of your income tax return is free. This tax year many of the income tax preparation service providers have increase their free service offerings to include free tax preparation along with their free e-filing service. What this all means is that if you like Turbo Tax or Tax Cut, they too offer free e-file and tax form preparation services in a software product that you may prefer over the IRS Free File product. It costs nothing to try Turbo Tax Free, Tax Cut Free, and new for this year Quicken Free which bundles well with Turbo Tax.

-Income Tax Pro

Tags: 1040, 1040a, 1040ez, 2008, efile, federal, form, forms, free, income, irs, online, preparation, Quicken, return, service, software, tax, taxcut, taxes, turbotax

This entry was posted on Wednesday, December 31st, 2008 at 4:23 am and is filed under Efile Free, Form 1040, Form 1040A, Form 1040EZ, IRS Tax Forms, Income Tax, Quicken, Tax Cut, Tax Refunds, Tax Returns, Tax Software, Turbo Tax. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.