If you're thinking about online tax preparation this year, you've found the right place to start. There are many places online that offer free use of their online tax preparation software. Online tax programs and software have been specifically designed for ease of use, accuracy and maximum tax savings.

When you prepare your taxes online there are usually three main areas the tax program will need to gather information about.

The first area is your personal information such as, address, social security number, date of birth, marital status and dependents.

The second area of the tax preparation program will be about your income such as, salary, wages, tips, interest, investments and any other sources of income you had.

The third area of the tax preparation program will be about tax deductions and tax credits such as your home, you and your family, cars, education, charitable donations, medical expenses, taxes paid, retirement, investments and employment expenses.

Once you've completed the three main areas of information it will be time for the tax program to make it's calculations. After the calculations have been made you will have a chance to review and edit any areas you choose. This can be very beneficial in some cases as you may decide to itemize versus taking the standard deduction.

Well, so far everything has been free for your online tax preparation, and you might even qualify for free tax filing, but even if you don't, the fee for filing online is usually quite small.