Saturday, October 7, 2017

IRS.GOV Gets a New Look

As a Tax Professional, I'm acutely aware of the myriad of ways that criminals try to steal your information.  As a person who spends their summer in a technology-free zone to allow uninterrupted tax book work, I sometimes miss some big news.

So when I typed irs.gov into my browser today to begin the long, arduous process of fact-checking and verifying data for the work I did all summer, I immediately suspected someone was trying to scam me with a fake website.  IRS.GOV looks COMPLETELY different!  It looks more streamlined, less cluttered, and at first glance, like a totally amateur attempt to fake a website.

A lot of research later (because I am SERIOUSLY paranoid) ensures me that it is genuine.

Things I like so far: Less fluff and more meat on the home page, big buttons and tabs for things you are most likely to need, and tax professional and charity stuff moved to its own area with easy to find buttons.

Things I don't like so far: The eight buttons on the home screen aren't buttons since you have to click on the words.  A bunch of other stuff that will inevitably suck but I haven't discovered yet since I rushed to make this post so you would know that the website is real and not a scam.

While your here, click on this link to get to the IRS website, click on the "Get a Transcript Online" button, and go through the steps.  This will set up an account for you that will allow you a lot of access to your tax information without having to jump through hoops later.  It's well worth your time to have this done.  Just keep the username and password handy!

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