Free Online TAX calculators

Tax calculators are nifty little tools that you can use to assist you in making sure that you complete the right forms for your income taxes and that you complete them correctly. Although there are fancy tax calculators and tax software programs that you can purchase in stores or download from the Internet, it isn’t actually necessary to spend a lot of money to get a good tax calculator that will make your taxes go more smoothly. There are actually many free online tax calculators that you can use without any investment at all. In fact, the IRS itself provides several different types of tax calculators to assist you in doing your income taxes.


Free Online Tax Calculators Provided by the IRS


The best online tax calculators that are free for you to use right from your Internet connection are those tax calculators that are provided by the IRS on the official government website for tax information. Here’s a closer look at those IRS tax calculators:


• IRS Filing Status Tax Calculator. The most important thing about doing your taxes is that you file the correct forms. To figure out which forms you need to file and what your filing status is, you can use this simple tax calculator provide by the IRS.


• IRS Alternative Minimum Tax Assistant Tax Calculator. This tax calculator helps you to figure out whether or not you are someone who must pay an alternative minimum tax. It’s not something that you want to pay but you have to if you’re required to do so; this tool will at least let you know.


• IRS State Sales Tax Calculator. People who are filing a 1040 form for their taxes may have the option of paying state sales taxes instead of state income taxes depending on certain details. This IRS tax calculator helps you to figure that out.


• IRS Withholding Calculator. This is a simple tax calculator that you don’t necessarily use when filing your income taxes but instead might use at any time throughout the year to make sure that the amount of taxes being withheld on your paycheck is an appropriate amount. This can be really useful for budgeting throughout the year and planning for your taxes each April.


Other Free Online Tax Calculators


Although the tools that are provided by the IRS are really good tools for assisting you in figuring out how to do your taxes properly, they may not be quite what you’re looking for if you’re on the hunt for a good free online tax calculator. Luckily there are a lot of other options out there that can further assist you in getting your taxes done correctly. Here is a look at some of the other tax calculators and tools available for free online:


• 1040 Tax Calculator. This is a really simple example of the kind of tax calculator that many people are looking for when they hunt down an article such as this one. It lets you enter basic information into a simple online form and then assists in calculating your taxes for you based upon the information that you have entered here. The site provides a lot of detailed explanation to assist you in making sure that you’re answering the tax calculator questions correctly in order to receive the best results.


• H&R Block Tax Calculator. This well-known tax company offers a free online tax calculator for your use in estimating what your taxes will be when filing this year. It’s a simple tool but it seems to be fairly accurate and should give you a head start on dealing with your taxes. Plus it comes from a really reputable tax business which is always nice when using online tools.


• TurboTax’s It’s Deductible. TurboTax is another really reputable business that offers a few different tax calculators through its website (along with a whole bunch of helpful guides and advice for dealing with your income taxes.). This particular free online tax calculator is one that you can use all year long to assist you in tracking any donations that you make so that you can properly claim them as deductions on your income taxes when it comes time to file each year.


• TaxBrain. This is another simple tool that you’ll find really easy to use if what you’re trying to do is simply to estimate the right amount of taxes to pay for the 2008 tax year.


• US Federal Income Tax Form 1040 Spreadsheet. This tool is similar to some of the other tools that are listed here but the format that it’s in is different which may be appealing to some people. This one is in the form of a free spreadsheet that you download and use to assist you in calculating your taxes. While some people prefer to enter numbers into a simple online tax calculator, others like the layout of the spreadsheet style so it’s great that these different options exist!


• 2009 Economic Stimulus Tax Comparison Calculator. This is a new tax calculator from YourMoneyPage.com, a site that offers a whole slew of different financial calculators including some that are similar to those tax calculators offered by the IRS. This one is neat because it takes a look at calculating the impact of President Obama’s stimulus plan on your taxes. Worth a look!


As you can see, there are actually a lot of different tax calculators out there that can assist you in doing your taxes more easily. Some of these tools can be used throughout the year to make life simpler come tax time. Others are specifically for use during tax time when you are trying to figure out how to pay what you need to pay and which tax forms are the right ones to file. By combining the tools that are provided directly by the IRS with those tax calculators that are provided through tax businesses and other third party sites, you should be able to get a good handle on doing your taxes this year!

Is Certificate Of Deposit Loan Good Option When need cash?

Certificate Of Deposit Loan

What’s a Certificate of Deposit Loan?

If you have opened a CD at a financial institution and are in need of cash, instead of paying the early-withdrawal fee (some banks charge up to six months of interest), a very good option might be to get yourself a certificate of deposit loan. A certificate of deposit loan is a secured loan where the owner of the certificate of deposit account is allowed to avail a loan based on the existing CD as collateral.

What Are Certificates of Deposit?

Certificates of deposit (also known as CDs) are one of the best ways to save money and make fast and easy cash a decent profit from interest income. Stashing a few certificates of deposit in your portfolio is also a good way of investing cash, as long as you hold them to maturity. A certificate of deposit is a special type of account that usually offers a higher interest rate than a regular savings account. Investing in a CD means locking in your savings for a set amount of time, usually three months to five years, and in this time span, you’re paid interest based on the terms you agreed on when you opened the account. Like savings and checking accounts, CD’s are protected by federal deposit insurance up $250,000, and are thus pretty safe investments.

Why Get a Certificate of Deposit Loan?

The main problem, though, with a CD is that for the duration of the contract, your money is locked and you can’t get access to it. Savings accounts pay less interest, but your money is available to you anytime you need it. In the case of a CD, if you draw your funds early, you pay a penalty, known as an early-withdrawal fee. If you got your CD from a broker, he may have told you that there is no early-withdrawal penalty. That doesn’t necessarily mean, though, that you can’t lose money by trying to cash the CD early.

Here’s how: if you buy a CD through a brokerage firm and cash it before it matures, the broker may try and sell the CD to another investor. You can benefit from this only if interest rates are lower when you cash your CD than they were when you bought it. It is so because an investor will be willing to pay more for your CD if the interest it pays is higher than what the market is offering. If you have a three-year CD at 5.5-percent interest and you want to sell at a time when the highest rate on a three-year CD is 4 percent, you’ll get a premium for your CD. But if you’re strapped for cash and have to sell when the current best rate on a three-year is 6 percent, there’s less demand for your CD and you may have to sell it at a discount. The money you lose could be actually greater than the early-withdrawal penalty you’d pay if you had purchased the CD through a bank. You could even lose an amount equal to your original deposit. That’s where a certificate of deposit loan might come in handy.

How a Certificate of Deposit Loan Works

As previously mentioned, a good way to avoid paying early-withdrawal fees is to get a certificate of deposit loan. As its name suggests, a certificate of deposit loan is a loan that is granted to you with your certificate of deposit as collateral. If you had opened up a CD and find yourself in a situation that would require you to cash it out, remember that you still have options. Instead of paying the early-withdrawal penalty, consider borrowing against those funds instead by getting a certificate of deposit loan. You can borrow the money you need at low rates while the savings that you previously set aside will continue to grow. Depending on the financial institution and your credit history, you can get terms up to 60 months and borrow up to 100% of the CD’s face value. For a fixed dollar amount and a specified time period, a certificate of deposit loan may be arranged for nearly any project or purpose and you’ll continue to earn interest on your account while you’re enjoying the benefits of your new loan.

So whether you’re planning on taking a vacation but don’t want to drive up your credit card balance, want to consolidate some of your bills without paying high interest rates, or have to face urgent and unforeseen expenses, you can get a fixed rate and term certificate of deposit loan.

Whay on which Universities And Credit Card Companies Make Money on Students

How can an educational institute act in its students' best interest if it stands to make fast money off of increasing their debt load? The symbiotic relationship between universities and credit card companies is being questioned more than ever by student groups and politicians, writes the New York Times.
Universities say the contracts bring in badly needed funds, although the example in the article—$8.4 million over 7 years to Michigan State in exchange for students' names and addresses—seems hardly worth it once you consider the long term damage done to unprepared students who enmesh themselves in debt, or the black mark against Michigan State now that the public knows that it sold off student contact info.
Banks say they cap credit cards at $2,500, but that's hardly a "low" credit limit for what are essentially unemployed or part-time employeed customers. The Times cites a US PIRG survey that found graduating "seniors with balances had an average debt of $2,623 on their cards."
A spokesman for Michigan State gives the paper an unintentionally telling quote about their concern for students:

“It provides money for scholarships and other programs,” said Terry R. Livermore, manager of licensing programs at Michigan State. He said that the program was aimed primarily at alumni and the university would not include sharing student information in future credit card contracts. “The students are such a minuscule portion of this program.”

But of course none of this would matter if students knew better than to exchange their future financial independence for items as trivial as a tshirt, mug, or blanket. Yes, blanket:

Abigail D. Molina, a second-year law student at the University of Oregon, applied in 2007 for a Chase Visa offered at a tent outside a football game. In exchange, she received a blanket. “I mostly wanted the blanket,” Ms. Molina said.

Please, do not be like Ms. Molina (or like me—I made the same stupid choices in college). Meg's "10 Commandments of Credit" is a good place to start for advice on how to approach credit cards and consumer debt.