| Cooperation between the IRS and state tax agencies | | | | Montana, Utah, Hawaii, Nebraska, Vermont, Idaho, New |
| have resulted in one piece of good news: you can file | | | | Jersey, Virginia, Illinois, New Mexico, West Virginia, |
| your federal and state tax returns electronically at the | | | | Indiana, New York, Wisconsin, Iowa and North Carolina. |
| same time. The best thing about it is that you can file | | | | Aside from the convenience, what else can you gain |
| right from the comfort of your own home or through a | | | | from electronically filing your federal/state tax returns |
| tax professional. | | | | at the same time? |
| So, how does this federal and state e-filing work? | | | | * You can get a refund fast. |
| Electronic filing software puts your federal and state | | | | We are talking about getting your IRS tax refund |
| tax returns in separate packets but sends them in one | | | | directly to your bank account in as little as ten days |
| electronic envelope to the IRS. The IRS then acts like | | | | and roughly the same time as state tax refunds. |
| a post office that sends the tax return to the | | | | * More accurate returns. |
| concerned state, which then processes the state | | | | With tax preparation software, errors are minimized |
| electronic tax return. | | | | because of the auto-correct feature. Also, the federal |
| The states participating in this electronic filing set-up | | | | and state e-filing process eliminates most of the errors |
| include Alabama, Kansas, North Dakota, Arizona, | | | | in the tax return. |
| Kentucky, Ohio, Arkansas, Louisiana, Oklahoma, | | | | Probably the only downside to the combo filing is that |
| Colorado, Maryland, Oregon, Connecticut, Michigan, | | | | you cannot make combo payments, so you have to |
| Pennsylvania, Delaware, Mississippi, Rhode Island, | | | | make separate payments to the federal government |
| District of Columbia, Missouri, South Carolina, Georgia, | | | | and to your state. |