March 27, 2008
By Brian Caulfield, Forbes
It's that time of year again. Millions of working Americans will have to hustle in their taxes by April 15.
The stakes are high. The combined tax package—including federal, state and sales taxes—amounts to 30.8% of all national income, according to the Tax Foundation—a nonprofit group that monitors U.S. tax policy. That means the paychecks of most workers from Jan. 1 through April 23 go entirely to pay their tax bill.
And that doesn't even include the time taxpayers slave over calculating their taxes or, worse yet, torturing themselves by putting off the whole process.
Luckily, the Internet is gracefully melding computer technology with online services to turn the inane mathematical and clerical calisthenics built into the tax system into mere data-entry drudgery. The result: new services that blend personalized help and computerized number crunching. "It's much easier than it used to be," says Gerald Prante, author of the Tax Foundation's Tax Freedom Day Report for 2008. That's good news for anyone who doesn't have a degree in accounting. [Read the full article.]