Being really easy, you wouldn’t think that anyone would pay someone to fill out a 1040 Form on their behalf.
Pay someone to complete a easy two-page form?
It sounds ridiculous, yet that’s exactly what lots of people do, apparently intimidated by the many, many, many pages of instructions.
These instructions for the 1040 Form are in fact pretty straightforward and not too many.
They span so many pages, nevertheless, simply because that multiple scenarios are covered, with examples given and definitions provided.
The 1040 Form is about as simple as it gets, though variants including the 1040A and 1040EZ are available that streamline matters even further.
But it’s no surprise that the 1040 should be simple; it is, after all, the “starter form” for most American taxpayers, folks who do not possess complex situations.
Despite being all of two pages by itself, many who file the 1040 will also offer attachments that report information which might not fit within the limited space given on the form itself.
These attachments are official parts of the 1040 called “schedules.”
Schedule C, for example, lists income and expenditures related to self-employment, while Schedule F is used to report that related to farming.
It’s all due by April 15 each year – or the first business day after that should April 15 fall on the weekend or perhaps a holiday.
But because of the worldwide web, filing is easier than previously, as is preparing itself, with guided onscreen instructions offered by the websites of some of the biggest name in computer tax software.
It isn’t simple charity on their part, however; these businesses lobbied the IRS very hard when it planned to provide, free of charge, tax preparation and filing through the official IRS website.
The resultant comprise allows those making less than twenty-five grand a year to have their federal taxes prepared and filed at no cost when done online.
