!44: 2005 Tax File Viewer - Do You Really Need One? | !44: Trx Tax Software Decide Now

!±8± 2005 Tax File Viewer - Do You Really Need One?

Many tax filers use downloadable software that leaves information on their hard drives. Although this made sense years ago, when Internet connections were slow, tax preparation websites are now far more effective than software you run on your own machine. For one thing, they can be automatically updated without forcing users to do any extra work. Another reason? They won't use obscure file formats that force you to track down a 2005 tax file viewer.

There's no particular reason tax software should work this way. There are standard formats for storing information (for example, the page you're viewing now is in HTML, which is easily readable by humans and computers). You only need a 2005 tax file viewer if the software package you used deliberately encoded the information in a special format.

It's not necessarily malicious that they created software that requires a 2005 tax file viewer to use. After all, everyone needs to make money somehow: desktop software companies sell a new version of their tax software every year, while online tax preparation companies charge for each use, or charge a subscription. But if you did your taxes online, you wouldn't need a 2005 tax file viewer: you'd have the information you needed right there, in printable, readable, sharable form.

If you're just looking for the information you wrote down in a tax form you later filed, you may not even need a 2005 tax file viewer at all! You can contact the IRS for a copy of your form, or a "transcript" which has just the numbers you entered. If you do need to use a 2005 tax file viewer, it's best to get the information and then use it to do your taxes on another tax preparation website.

There's no good reason to use old software when you can work with specialists who understand how to file your taxes for prior years. The 2005-era software you'd need for a 2005 tax file viewer isn't optimized to file late taxes, but filing late taxes is a specialized corner of normal tax filing. The experts who focus on that can optimize a filing to avoid triggering extra fees and interest, and can even help negotiate with the IRS.