Americans Flocking to AOL to File Tax Returns Online.Business Editors DULLES, Va.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 10, 2000 AOL (A division of Time Warner, Inc., New York, NY, www.aol.com) The world's largest online information service with access to the Internet, e-mail, chat rooms and a variety of databases and services. PERSONAL FINANCE CHANNEL REPORTS 600% INCREASE IN TAX FORMS FILED ONLINE, NUMBER ACCELERATING RAPIDLY AS TAX DAY NEARS AOL's Personal Finance Channel Makes Tax Filing Easier Download Forms, Seek Professional Advice, Prepare and File Online - All In One Place Error Rates for Electronically Filed Returns Historically Less Than 1% Compared to 18% with Paper Returns America Online See AOL. , Inc. (NYSE NYSE See: New York Stock Exchange :AOL), the world's leading interactive services company, today announced that it has already seen a 600% increase over 1999 in the number of members filing online using Quicken A popular financial management program for PCs and Macs from Intuit, Inc., Mountain View, CA (www.intuit.com). It is used to write checks, organize investments and produce a variety of reports for personal finance and small business. (R) TurboTax(R) for the Web(sm) through the Tax Planning Tax planning Devising strategies throughout the year in order to minimize tax liability, for example, by choosing a tax filing status that is most beneficial to the taxpayer. area of AOL's Personal Finance Channel, with that number rapidly accelerating as tax day approaches. Consumers are also downloading tax forms at record rates -- AOL is now seeing forms downloaded at a rate of more than three per minute. The dramatic growth signals the continued interest in using the online medium to handle taxes and other personal finance needs. Americans are increasingly turning to America Online for all of their tax needs. The Tax Planning area on AOL's Personal Finance Channel (AOL Keyword:Tax) had more than 2.5 million visitors in February and March, and traffic is expected to continue to increase as the April 17th filing deadline nears. According to according to prep. 1. As stated or indicated by; on the authority of: according to historians. 2. In keeping with: according to instructions. 3. an online poll conducted by Digital City Technologies, 92% of responding AOL members who filed online this year to date found the experience less stressful than filing paper returns. The IRS An abbreviation for the Internal Revenue Service, a federal agency charged with the responsibility of administering and enforcing internal revenue laws. reports that error rates for electronically filed returns historically are less than 1% compared to 18% with paper returns. "Traditional tax preparation can be both time-consuming and very intimidating in·tim·i·date tr.v. in·tim·i·dat·ed, in·tim·i·dat·ing, in·tim·i·dates 1. To make timid; fill with fear. 2. To coerce or inhibit by or as if by threats. , and each year we find more and more people turning to the ease and convenience available online for tax preparation and filing," said Rob Shenk, Executive Director of AOL's Personal Finance Channel. "With just a short period before Tax Day 2000, AOL's Tax Planning Department puts anything and everything members want to know about taxes in one place and gives people what they really need, from tools to help calculate taxes to tax professionals to consult when questions arise." To meet the increased demand for online tax preparation services Tax preparation services Firm that prepare tax returns for a fee. , AOL Personal Finance is delivering a wide range of features designed to save members hours of frustration as they prepare their 1999 taxes. The tax planning area on AOL gives members a comprehensive set of resources from AOL's roster of well-known and trusted partners, including CBS (Cell Broadcast Service) See cell broadcast. MarketWatch.com, Money.com, Quicken TurboTax, The Motley Fool, Sage and TaxLogic. AOL also delivers high-quality tax planning, calculating and filing tools. Whether members need to know if they qualify for Roth IRAs Roth IRA An individual retirement plan that bears many similarities to the Traditional IRA. Contributions are never deductible, and qualified distributions are tax-free. A qualified distribution is one that is taken at least five years after the taxpayer established his/her first , or they want to completely fill out their tax forms online, these simple-to-use interactive tools walk members through the process by asking a series of easily understandable questions. When members calculate their taxes online, they need only provide the information as their employers, banks and investment firms give it to them. The interactive tools do the hard work of entering that information into the tax form and tabulating the final results. Some additional popular tax preparation resources found on AOL include: 1. Get tax forms from home - One of the biggest online time savers is the ability to download and print tax forms. This saves members the hassle of a trip to the Library or Post Office, and having to fish through the piles and boxes to find the form that's right for them. Quick access to forms online is also a huge convenience factor because members can simply reprint reprint An individually bound copy of an article in a journal or science communication their forms when mistakes are made. 2. Prepare your taxes online - The AOL alliance with Intuit in·tu·it tr.v. in·tu·it·ed, in·tu·it·ing, in·tu·its Usage Problem To know intuitively. [Back-formation from intuition. , the leader in financial software and Web-based services, enables members to prepare and file their federal and state tax returns on the Web via Quicken TurboTax for the Web. TurboTax for the Web is the leading online tax preparation and filing service, allowing members to prepare taxes easily by asking a series of straightforward questions like "Did you sell any stocks this year?" and "Do you have children?" and then using the answers to these questions to calculate the refund or amount owed. TurboTax for the Web helps users complete their taxes more easily, accurately and in a fraction of the time it would take to calculate and prepare them off-line. 3. File electronically - After preparing their taxes using TurboTax for the Web, members can electronically send taxes to the IRS, at no additional charge, for the fastest refund. AOL members who file electronically will find there is a shorter processing time, and they will receive proof from the IRS that their tax return was received. Filing electronically also reduces the chance of the IRS making a processing error by keeping human hands out of the equation. 4. Ask the Experts - Through AOL's agreement with TaxLogic, a virtual tax accountant service, AOL members can chat live with tax professionals, submit questions directly to CPAs or browse through a listing of frequently asked questions. Confused about how selling a home affects your return or whether your 18-year-old is still considered a dependent? The "Ask the Experts" area provides all the answers. These expert answers are posted, in well-organized bulletin boards, so all members can benefit from the experts' answers. These message boards -- some of the most active in cyberspace Coined by William Gibson in his 1984 novel "Neuromancer," it is a futuristic computer network that people use by plugging their minds into it! The term now refers to the Internet or to the online or digital world in general. See Internet and virtual reality. Contrast with meatspace. this time of year -- are active 24 hours a day 7 days a week. 5. Access the best tax tips online -- The Tax Planning department is loaded with useful tips and information from a host of impressive partners. 6. Get ready for next year -- Members can use AOL Personal Finance's services, tools, and financial resources throughout the 2000 fiscal year to help them get organized and stay organized and make next year's filing time less stressful. About the AOL Personal Finance Channel AOL's Personal Finance Channel offers the most comprehensive suite of financial tools and information available in cyberspace. With more than 10 million regular users, according to Media Metrix, AOL's Personal Finance Channel enables members to research and trade stocks and mutual funds, conduct their online banking, get the most up-to-date business and market news, access detailed financial data, and chat with other members about market trends and financial information. The Channel maintains over 13 million active investment portfolios, with 36,000 new portfolios added every trading day In Business, the trading day is the time span that a particular stock exchange is open. For example, the New York Stock Exchange is, as of 2006, open from 09:30AM to 4:00PM. Trading days never take place on weekends. , and provides AOL members with more than 160 million stock quotes per trading day, and over 2 billion quotes per month. The Channel also generates over 12 million financial graphs per month for AOL users. The Personal Finance Channel also offers access to financial information from popular sources such as CBS MarketWatch.com, Money.com, TurboTax, The Motley Fool and Sage. And the Personal Finance Channel enables members to do their taxes, research and trade stocks and mutual funds, conduct their online banking, handle real estate and insurance matters, get the most up-to-date business and market news, access detailed financial data and chat with other members about market trends and financial information. About America Online, Inc. Founded in 1985, America Online, Inc., based in Dulles, Virginia Dulles, Virginia is an unincorporated census-designated place located in Loudoun County, Virginia, part of the Washington Metropolitan Area. The headquarters of AOL, Orbital Sciences Corporation and ODIN technologies and the former headquarters of MCI Inc. are located in Dulles. , is the world's leader in interactive services, Web brands, Internet technologies, and e-commerce services. America Online, Inc. operates: two worldwide Internet services, America Online, with more than 22 million members, and CompuServe, with more than 2.5 million members; several leading Internet brands including ICQ ("I Seek You") A conferencing program for the Internet from Mirabilis, Tel Aviv, Israel (www.icq.com). It provides interactive chat, e-mail and file transfer and can alert you when someone on your predefined list has also come online. , AOL Instant Messenger See AIM. and Digital City, Inc.; the Netscape Netcenter and AOL.COM portals; the Netscape Navigator An earlier Web browser for Windows, Macintosh and X Windows from Netscape that provided secure transmission over the Internet. Soon after its introduction in 1994, Navigator, or just "Netscape," as it was commonly called, quickly became the leading browser on the Web. and Communicator browsers; AOL Moviefone, the nation's #1 movie listing guide and ticketing service; and Spinner.com and NullSoft's Winamp, leaders in Internet music. Through its strategic alliance with Sun Microsystems Sun Microsystems, Inc. (NASDAQ: JAVA[3]) is an American vendor of computers, computer components, computer software, and information-technology services, founded on 24 February 1982. , the company develops and offers easy-to-deploy, end-to-end e-commerce and enterprise solutions for companies operating in the Net Economy. Intuit, Quicken and TurboTax are registered trademarks of Intuit Inc. Quicken TurboTax for the Web is a service mark of Intuit Inc. |
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