Draft 2011 tax return software options

December 13, 2011

I'm sure that by now all y'all have followed my first piece of year-end tax advice: Do a draft tax return.

What? You haven't yet done a dry run to see what you're 2011 tax bill (or refund) might be? I'm as shocked, shocked as Capt. Renault.

Well, this time your procrastination seems to have paid off.

My tax-blogging colleague William Perez today previews the three major tax preparation software programs' abilities to provide you with an advance look of your 2011 taxes.

"Yesterday I sat down to figure out what my taxes might look like for 2011," says William. "Drafting out a tax return for me had two purposes: figuring out if I need to make any additional tax payments, and also figuring out whether engaging in any year-end moves would be worthwhile."

I'll let you head on over to his assessment at About.com Tax Planning: U.S. of how well TaxACT, TurboTax and H&R Block At Home worked for him in his preliminary calculations.

And if you can make some time between shopping and attending holiday events, not to mention that pesky work that gets in the way every year about this time, do run a draft tax return.

You might find that you'll have enough coming back to pay for that special Christmas gift.

You also might find these items of interest:

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Hello Tax Season 2026

Happy New Tax Year! Are you ready to file your 2025 tax return? I know, too early to ask. But Tax Day 2026 will be here before we realize it. The Internal Revenue Service deadline to file and pay any tax we owe is the regular April 15 date this year. It’s also Tax Day for most of the states that collect income taxes from their residents, which is most of the states! If that seems too far away right now, don’t worry. As is the case every tax season, the ol’ blog’s tips and other tax reminders should help all of us meet our state and federal responsibilities. Procrastinators also will want to keep an eye on the countdown clock just below. It tracks how much time we have until April’s Tax Day, just in case we put off our annual tax task until the absolutely final hours and decide we need to instead get an extension request into the IRS by that date. (Note: I’m in the Central Time Zone, so adjust accordingly for where you live.)

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