Quick: when you hear “1040 Form,” what do you imagine of?

Taxes, yes, IRS, yes, April 15th, yes - but anything else?

Dollars?  Yes, you’re getting warmer….

More specifically, “money” as in “investment,” as in “stock market.”  As in companies like H&R Block (HRB) and Jackson-Hewlitt (JTX).

Talk about the IRS 1040 Tax Form and if you think really hard or long enough, you’ll eventually think of the tax preparation industry.  So, think about it?  Well, how about the truth that it’s an excellent line of company to invest your cash in?  After all, there’s a captive audience involved, and though profits are seasonal it’s guaranteed every year since virtually everyone has to file a return!

A true winner, right?

Not necessarily.  Not anymore.

Like just about everything else in our world, computers have changed things significantly.

Tax preparation software persists to be popular, and its utilization is even expanding now that web-based services exist which involve no installation procedures on one’s computer.  In fact, many of these web-based services are frequently free - that’s right, free!

It’s not because the companies supplying them are doing it out of any altruistic impulses, obviously.  In fact, far from it.  For the IRS was about to take benefit of modern technology - ultimately - and offer online tax preparation and filing to all for free, but the industry lobbied intensely against the idea.  It would, after all, put them out of business.  And while jobs are important, so is serving the public good.  And though jobs definitely fall within the description of a public good, so is making government more accessible.

So, where to start?

A bargain was brokered which lead to online tax preparation software being free for those making under twenty-five thousand dollars a year or so.  In exchange, the government agreed to not offer their own free preparation and filing service at the IRS website!

Now back to stocks.

Having stored fee-based online preparation and filing services, the companies offering them are in position to continue getting money - without a doubt, to keep on increasing their revenues as progressively more people log onto the web to do their taxes.  This puts those running brick-and-mortar operations, such as H&R Block and Jackson-Hewlitt, on the same road the dinosaurs found themselves, the fast track to disintegration.

So, how to proceed?

The writing’s on the wall.  It’s only a matter of time prior to hardly anyone will do tax preparation and filing offline! The fact that some of these forms are entirely ridiculous and a waste of time, let alone money which is also equally as important, but there are actually counter forms to retaliate against time- wasting forms which virtually do absolutely nothing with no gains at all, that is, depending on what the cause may be. Makes sense right? Well in a nutshell let’s just say now they have much more proper forms which are proper and accounts straight away to the cause of the form rather than a general form which follows up an appointment to describe to the guy or woman what the actual reason is in filling up that form…maybe more. Makes more sense now doesn’t it?