Free, plain-English tax guides
Every guide, one shelf.
Short, honest walkthroughs of the tax situations that cost real people real money — each one checked against the IRS’s own pages. Start wherever your question is. When you’re ready, the free intake walks your actual return in your language.
Claim what’s yours
Before and while you file — credits and deductions people leave on the table.
Filing with an ITIN
No Social Security number? You can still file a federal return — and it’s often worth real money. Who needs an ITIN, how to get it with Form W-7 while keeping your passport, which credits you get, and the renewal trap.
The student-loan interest deduction
Deduct up to $2,500 of student-loan interest as an adjustment to income — you don’t have to itemize. What counts as a qualified loan, how Form 1098-E works, the income phase-out, and the married-filing-separately trap.
The child & dependent care credit
Paid for daycare, a babysitter, after-school care, or summer day camp so you could work? Form 2441 pays part of it back — and it stacks on top of the Child Tax Credit and the EITC. New York’s version can even be refundable.
The ‘instant refund’ trap
That “refund today” offer is a loan, and the “refund transfer” is a paid product — both skim the refund your credits just earned. A genuine e-filed return with direct deposit is already fast, and it’s free.
When the IRS writes back
A letter landed, or a return you already filed needs a fix.
Decode an IRS notice
A notice is a clock, not a verdict. Decode the letters real filers get — CP14 (you owe), CP2000 (a proposal, not a bill), the CP501→CP503→CP504 ladder, the LT11 with its 30-day hearing right, and CP49 — find the deadline, match the move.
Amend a filed return
Left money on the table — the EITC, the Child Tax Credit, an education credit, a dependent? A filed return isn’t final. Form 1040-X fixes it, and you usually have three years from the original deadline to claim what you’re owed.
When you owe
The balance is real — file anyway, get on a plan, and cut what you can.
Owe the IRS and can’t pay
File anyway — the failure-to-file penalty (5%/month) is ten times the failure-to-pay one. Then walk the real ladder: a short-term extension, an online installment agreement, Currently Not Collectible status, or an Offer in Compromise.
Erase a late penalty
Charged a late-filing or late-payment penalty? First-Time Abatement can erase it — often with one phone call — when your last three years are clean. If you don’t qualify, reasonable-cause relief covers illness, a death, or a disaster.
Innocent spouse relief
A joint return makes each spouse liable for the whole bill — so a controlling or dishonest partner can leave the other holding a debt they never saw. The three relief doors, how abuse counts, the deadlines, and Form 8857.
None of this is a bill
These guides are free and so is the help behind them. A VITA site or Low Income Taxpayer Clinic volunteer can file the return, read the notice, or amend the year with you — at no cost. Nothing here is tax or legal advice for your exact situation; every page links the primary IRS source so you can check it against your own paperwork.