January 2011

Vanguard vs Fidelity – Which is better?

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I am trying to open a ROTH IRA for my emergency funds (will write a separate post to defend myself on this ). Right now, I have my employer sponsored accounts – 401k, employee stock purchase plan in Fidelity and personal investment account in Vanguard. When I initially opened the Vanguard account 5 years ago, [...]

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Do I need to File a Tax return?

Do you have to file a tax return? A lot of people assume they don’t have to file a tax return because they didn’t earn much or “paid their taxes” as part of the withholding and don’t have to pay again. Generally you don’t HAVE to file a tax return if your income is not [...]

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efile

What Do Almost 100 Million American Taxpayers Know about efile? They know that IRS-efile is the easiest, safest way to file taxes. They also know that efiling is the fastest way to get a tax refund. Why is efile So Popular? The popularity of electronically filing taxes online (efile or e-file) has grown exponentially over [...]

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Paper IRS Forms And Tax Publications

As internet became available for every one, IRS has moved away from sending out paper tax forms in the mailer as they used to. Remember getting that bulky mail from IRS and opening it with your heart beating fast in case it is an audit notice ? Ah good old days. Anyway, there are so [...]

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H&R Block at home 2010 review & giveaway

H&R Block is one of the oldest & largest retail tax preparation firms in the US. In 2010, H&R Block prepared one in seven U.S. tax returns. Even if you didn’t use H&R Block, you would have seen their offices within a few miles of your home. H&R Block at home is the DIY version [...]

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Travel on a shoestring budget : Student edition

It is a well known fact that student budgets are extremely tight. At the same time though, student life is when you have the most time and the physical ability to travel. Traveling need not be very expensive and planning a vacation need not be a stressful assignment. You can use your student status to [...]

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2010 Traditional and ROTH IRA contribution limits

As the tax season draws nearer, many people might be scrambling to see how they can lower their 2010 taxes. For most of the tax reduction techniques, they have to be implemented by the end of 2010, it is a little late now. The one way that still can work to reduce the taxes is [...]

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IRS will accept returns from February 14

IRS released a news release today saying that they will accept the federal returns from everyone on February 14. I have written about the income tax filing delay.  IRS needed some time to update their system to accommodate the recent 2011 tax changes. This income tax filing delay will only affect people who will be [...]

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First time home Buyer – Saving for a down payment

“Where the hell did you get the money?”, I wanted to ask this question 3 times in the last 2 months. For social reasons, the words never came out of my mouth, I just kept asking myself and my husband the question.  What is it that we are doing wrong? Every time I heard one [...]

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