When shopping for a qualified tax preparer pricing is always forefront in all our minds.  Most reputable tax preparers price their services based on the forms used (i.e. the more complex your tax situation, the more forms you’re likely to file).  Fair.  By using this method preparers are able to attract the simpler tax returns with lower rates, yet maintaining the ability to increase the service fee as the complexity of the tax return increases. 

Bearing this in mind, you are now probably curious as to what is the simplest tax return.  The answer to that is, as the name of the form implies, a Form 1040EZ filing.

You can use Form 1040EZ if all the items in this checklist apply.

• Your filing status is single or married filing jointly. If you were a nonresident alien at any time in 2011, see Nonresident aliens below.
• You do not claim any dependents.
• You do not claim any adjustments to income. Click here for additional details.
• You claim only the earned income credit. Click here for additional details.
• You (and your spouse if filing a joint return) were under age 65 and not blind at the end of 2011. If you were born on January 1, 1947, you are considered to be age 5 at the end of 2011 and cannot use form 1040EZ
• Your taxable income (line6 of Form 1040EZ) is less than $100,000
• You had only wages, salaries, tips, taxable scholarship or fellowship grants, unemployment compensation, or Alaska Permanent Fund dividends, and your taxable interest was not over $1,500.
• If you earned tips, they are included in boxes 5 and 7 of your Form W2
• You do not owe any household employment taxes on wages you paid to a household employee. To find out who owes these taxes Click here.
• You are not a debtor in chapter 11 bankruptcy case filed after October 16, 2005.

Follow this link to find this year's Form 1040EZ in a PDF format that will allow you to fill in your information. You may, if you wish, use this to file your own taxes.