- REP. MEREDITH STRANG BURGESS -
ANNOUNCES AVAILABILITY OF FREE TAX PREPARATION
THROUGH FREE FILE ALLIANCE
Constituents with an adjusted gross income below $56,000 may qualify

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AUGUSTA – State Rep. Meredith Strang Burgess (R-Cumberland) announced today that free on-line federal tax preparation services are available for manyMaine residents through the Free File Alliance (www.freefilealliance.org). The Free File Alliance is a voluntary coalition of private sector tax software preparation companies that have a public-private partnership with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to provide their on-line services to millions of Americans.

Taxpayers with an adjusted gross income (AGI) of $56,000 or less who meet certain age requirements (differs depending on the company used) may qualify for free preparation services. Adjusted gross income is defined as gross income minus adjustments to income. If your income or personal circumstances did not change from last year, refer to your 2007 federal income tax return to get a quick estimate of your 2008 AGI.

Some participating Free File Alliance companies do offer free state tax return preparation and e-filing services. Before selecting a company, taxpayers may want to use the Help Me Find A Company link on IRS.gov to determine which companies offer state tax preparation and e-filing services for their state. The Help Me Find a Company link may be found in the middle of the screen on the Free File homepage.

If taxpayers want to use the same company to prepare their state return and their federal return, an option is available to select the state that will be used for preparing a state income tax return. The resulting companies that will be displayed will include companies that offer software preparation and e-filing for the taxpayer’s state tax return.

Rep. Strang Burgess encourages taxpayers who would like to take advantage of the Free File program to visit either the IRS website at www.irs.gov and click on the Free File link or go directly to www.freefilealliance.org. Taxpayers can find the offers made by industry participants and choose the offer that fits their needs. Taxpayers are then transferred to the company's website to prepare and electronically file their taxes.