I was watching the local news this past weekend, when there was an interesting segment. In order to qualify for the free money being given in the tax stimulus package, you must file income taxes for this year. Many seniors other low-income people may not be required to file their taxes. Furthermore because they might not have filed taxes in years, they probably aren’t aware that they need to do this to claim their share of the money.
I realize it is late in the tax season to get taxes filed. Fortunately, if you are in this situation, your taxes are not going to be difficult. If that’s the case, perhaps the IRS’ Free File website will help you quickly get your taxes done. For further reading, I found this news article on the subject.
If you know someone who qualifies, please do them a favor and send them this article as soon as possible.
My grandmother almost didn’t file this year – she did it only when she realized she’d be leaving a few hundred dollars on the table by not doing it. It took her about ten minutes.
And tell your grandparents to file electronically so that they are at the top of the list to receive the refunds.
I filed my mom’s and aunt’s federal tax returns yesterday. It took all of a 1/2 hour, most of it spent on the phone getting SSNs and bank routing and account numbers. Turbo Tax has a free online tax prep (I found it through the aforementioned IRS site) tool for anyone who made less than (I think) $54,000 in taxable income (it might have been $30,000)…