Tax day — April 15 — is only a week away, and students who are already feeling the pressure of spring term may find it easier to file their taxes electronically using e-file.
While e-filing is not a new phenomenon during tax season — more than 42 million people e-filed last year — this is the first-year a service called Free File is being offered. The Free File Alliance, a group of 17 companies, are working with the Internal Revenue Service to provide free tax preparation and e-filing services to qualifying taxpayers.
Shawn George, the IRS spokeswoman for Oregon, said each company has a different set of qualification requirements for the services, adding that she thought college students would not have a problem receiving Free File services. If a taxpayer does not qualify for Free File
services, however, they can still e-file with tax companies, such as H&R Block, for a fee.
Eugene has several locations where people volunteer to help others with taxes. Two of the sites offer e-filing: Super Site, located at 275 W. 11th Ave., is open from 9 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Monday through Wednesday and from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. on Thursdays, and the Singer Conference Room in the Eugene Public Library, which is open from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Saturdays. Both sites accept walk-in appointments, and will be open through April 15.
E-filing, which requires no additional paperwork to be sent to the IRS, also speeds up the refund process. Some businesses offering e-filing services also provide refund anticipation loans. With this service, a refund check goes back to the taxpayer within two to three days. H&R Block offers the refund anticipation service for a fee of 35 dollars plus interest.
E-T Tax Service, located in Eugene, is one of many businesses that will not offer. Jayne Williams, an employee of E-T Tax Service, said refund anticipation loans don’t help clients because they would lose money on interest rates that the bank charges. She added some people don’t realize it is a loan from a company, which means it costs the client extra money.
“No one can get their money back in two days,” she said.
George said it takes about 10 days for the IRS to send a refund check to those who e-file, and also request that the check be electronically transferred into a checking or savings account.
According to the Oregon Department of Revenue, more than 414,000 Oregon taxpayers filed their income taxes electronically, a 20 percent increase over the previous year. Officials with the department said they expect to receive more than half a million e-filed returns this year.
Stacey Weeks, the department’s alternative filing coordinator, said in a press release that many people prefer e-filing because of convenience.
“It takes an average of one to two hours to complete a tax return electronically, versus 10 to 12 hours by pen and paper,” Weeks said.
For more information on e-filing, visit http://www.irs.gov/efile/index.html.