January 26, 2012

New Apps For Income Tax Target 1040EZ Filers

By CAROLE FELDMAN

Associated Press

For the taxpayer on the go trying to file a return quickly and easily, there’s an app for it.

``We’re trying to anticipate and follow trends you see in the real world,’’ said Bob Meighan, a vice president at TurboTax.

And the trend is mobile, from smart phones to tablets. ``People want simple solutions,’’ he said.
Taxes-on-the-go applications are a natural next step to the explosion in electronic filing. TurboTax has SnapTax, which allows those filing the simplest tax form, 1040EZ, to file directly from their iPhone or android. Similarly, H&R Block has H&R Block At Home for filing simple returns via those smart phones.

The IRS says the typical 1040EZ filer is a wage earner who has income of less than $100,000, is under 65, and doesn’t have kids, own a home, or qualify for most other deductions or credits.

Meighan said about 24 million people file the 1040EZ. ``You can literally do your return in 10 or 15 minutes max,’’ he said.

Taxpayers can use smart phones to take pictures of documents like the W-2 form, and an optical reader in the application imports the photos into the tax forms.

Both companies allow you to download the applications for free, but there’s a cost for filing.

``We take away the barrier of entry, provide confidence along the way and provide support along the way,’’ said Gene King, spokesman for H&R Block. He said the company also offers audit protection for filers using the smart phone app.

What if you lose your phone?

``People should always be concerned about security,’’ Meighan said. ``We’ve done the work to mitigate your file being compromised.’’

For one thing, he said, the data is encrypted and stored on the TurboTax server, not on the phone. Within an hour, if the data is not saved or accessed, the application deletes it.

The Internal Revenue Service also has an application for iPhones and androids, IRS2Go, that lets taxpayers check on the status of refunds and get tips. It can’t be used to actually file a return. A report by the Inspector General for Tax Administration said that for security reasons, taxpayers should only download the application from the Apple App store or the Android Market.

IRS spokesman Terry Lemons said an update to the IRS app later this year will link to the agency’s YouTube videos and give taxpayer tips. ``We’re never going to challenge Angry Birds for downloads but we got a pretty good response last year,’’ he said.

H&R Block and TurboTax also have iPad applications that enable taxpayers to file more complicated returns, similar to how they might do it using a home computer.

Electronic filing can speed the processing of your tax return. And, if you choose direct deposit, you’ll get your refund much more quickly, in as few as 10 days, the IRS says.

The agency also cites an error rate of just 1 percent for electronically filed returns, compared with 20 percent for paper returns.

Taxpayers with adjusted gross incomes under $57,000 can electronically file for free through the IRS website www.freefile.irs.gov . The agency has agreements with tax preparation companies to provide the service, and you can choose which one you would like to use. If your income is higher than that threshold, the agency provides on its website Fillable Forms, which do basic math calculations and allow you to file electronically. No support is provided with the Fillable Forms, nor are state returns included. The IRS calls it ``the simple electronic equivalent of paper forms.’’

Lemons said he expects the number of returns filed electronically to continue to rise.

In a November report, the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration called on the IRS to improve the way it tracks performance and security issues in its new e-filing system, scheduled to be fully in place by 2013.

``Since a growing number of Americans are filing their returns electronically, there is no room for error in IRS computer systems,’’ J. Russell George, the inspector general, said in a statement. ``The IRS must be relentless in its pursuit of excellence with regard to all aspects of the Modernized e-file system.’’

The IRS responded that it addresses any security weaknesses immediately.

First Woman To Make Antarctic Trek Alone Does It In 59 Days

Buenos Aires, Argentina (AP) British adventurer Felicity Aston completed her crossing of Antarctica on Monday, becoming the first woman to ski across the icy continent alone.

She did it in 59 days, pulling two sledges for 1,084 miles (1,744 kilometers) from her starting point on the Leverett Glacier on Nov. 25.“!!!Congratulations to the 1st female to traverse Antarctica SOLO.V proud,” her Twitter message said.

She announced her achievement from Hercules Inlet on Antarctica’s Ronne Ice Shelf, where she waited alone in her tent for bad weather to clear so that a small plane could pick her up and take her to a base camp. Other expeditions also have gathered there, preparing for the summer’s last flight off the continent.

Aston also set another record: the first human to ski solo, across Antarctica, using only her own muscle power. A male-female team already combined to ski across Antarctica without kites or machines to pull them across, but Aston is the first to do this alone.

A veteran of expeditions in sub-zero environments, Aston, 34, worked as a meteorologist in Antarctica and has led teams on ski trips in the Antarctic, the Arctic and Greenland.

Aston is the first human to cross Antarctica using only muscle power

Her journey took her from the Ross Ice Shelf, up the Leverett Glacier and across the Transantarctic Mountains to the continent’s vast central plateau, where she fought headwinds most of the way to the South Pole.

Then she turned toward Hercules Inlet and a base camp where the Antarctic Logistics and Expeditions company provides logistical support to each summer’s Antarctic expeditions.

She arranged in advance for two supply drops so that she could travel with a lighter load, one at the pole and one partway toward her final destination. Otherwise, her feat was unassisted.

Aston tweeted that she’s been promised red wine and a hot shower after she gets picked up. “No plane tonight but I have my last Beef and Ale Stew to enjoy for my final evening alone — yum!” she wrote.

And while she pondered her achievement in her last hours of solitude Monday, she shared more of her thoughts in a phone call she broadcast live online.

“It’s all a little bit overwhelming. After days and days to get here, I seem to have arrived all in a rush. I don’t really feel prepared for it. It feels amazing to be finished and yet overwhelmingly sad that it’s over at the same time,” she said. “I can’t quite believe that i’m here and that i’ve crossed Antarctica, just over 1700 kilometers, just under 1,000 nautical miles, 14.5 degrees and 59 days and here I am.”

“I’m just going to sit here and enjoy these last precious moments on my own, and running through my mind all those days behind me, the plane leaving me on my own ... the awful day when I thought I was going to get blown away, all those days of bad weather, slogging through those mountains, up those hills with my sledges, arriving at the pole, leaving the pole again, more bad weather and just empty horizons...”

“I remember all the bad times, sitting in my tent, thinking ‘what on Earth am I doing?’, but despite all that, this has been the most amazing privilege, to have the opportunity to do this, and just a huge thank you to all those people who made it possible.”

New Interactive Exhibit Marks Centennial Of Titanic’s Loss

New London, CT (AP) After discovering the wreck of the Titanic in 1985, explorer Robert Ballard, who heads the Institute for Exploration at Mystic Aquarium, thought he knew most of the stories about the doomed ocean liner.

But while helping design the aquarium’s new Titanic exhibit, slated to open April 12, just days before the 100th anniversary of the sinking, Ballard learned of the Guarantee Group.

This small group of people who helped build the ship in Northern Ireland was selected to go on the maiden voyage. All died in the sinking.

Until now, Ballard said, their families had not publicized their connection with the ship because they felt in some way ashamed and responsible for what had occurred. But Ballard recently went to Belfast and met with the families, who agreed to be interviewed for the first time.

``For me, this story has always been about the people, not the ship,’’ Ballard said.

Those interviews are part of the new $2 million interactive Titanic exhibit now being constructed in the Mystic Aquarium’s Challenge of the Deep attraction, which featured Ballard’s many discoveries.

On Wednesday, Ballard unveiled the exhibit during a luncheon at the headquarters of the Explorer’s Club, an elite society that counts many of the world’s most famous adventurers, including Ballard, among its members.

While there will be a plenty of Titanic attractions this spring - the release of James Cameron’s movie in 3D, traveling artifact shows - Ballard and exhibit designer Tim Delaney, a former Disney imagineer, said ``Titanic - 12,450 feet Below’’ boasts something no other exhibit can: a recreation of the exact moment when Ballard found the wreck more than two miles down on the floor of the North Atlantic.

Ballard found the Titanic in 1985

``The idea is to put you in my shoes as we were going through the process and get you to that moment of discovery,’’ Ballard said.

With new footage and actual footage that was shot in the control room during the discovery, Ballard said, he will do just that.

``We feel we’re the only ones that can tell that story,’’ he said.

Ballard and Delaney first worked together on the design of the Living Seas Pavilion at the EPCOT theme park in Disney World 27 years ago.

At Wednesday’s luncheon, Delaney walked the audience through the experience that visitors will have in the new exhibit.

He said they will enter a room designed to recreate the excitement and anticipation that surrounded the launch of the 882-foot-long Titanic. There will be recreation of a stateroom, people constructing the hull and flashing headlines about the liner.

Visitors will then enter a cold room compete with a starry night sky and large iceberg. Along the sides will be interactive displays and kiosks, and iceberg warnings will be heard.

``We’re trying to create an exhibit about discovery and exploration by using discovery and exploration,’’ Delaney said of the kiosks.

The next two rooms will feature digital images of the ship breaking apart, debris sinking to the bottom and the hull sections and debris field on the ocean floor.

``We want people to feel like they are in this environment,’’ he said.

There’s also a digital table where visitors can pull up all types of information about the ship.

``The delivery system we use has to be as exciting as the discovery,’’ Delaney said. ``Today, you have to make it interactive, you have to make it emotional and you have to tell a great story at the right time. That’s our goal.’’

A recreation of a two-story engine room will show visitors the complexity of large machines. Visitors will see the actual discovery being made when they enter the Discovery Theater.

``We have great story in the Titanic and a great story in Bob Ballard,’’ Delaney said.

While the exhibit will contain extensive high definition video and digital images from Ballard’s 2004 return to the ship, it will not contain any artifacts, no tea cups or shoes such as other groups have recovered and displayed. It’s a point Ballard talked passionately about Wednesday. He has steadfastly opposed the recovery of artifacts from the ship, likening it taking items from Gettysburg or the USS Arizona.

``The ship went to the bottom first and then the bodies came raining down,’’ he said.

Ballard said that by helping people experience the discovery, he hopes they will be encouraged to protect the world’s oceans and what’s in them.

``The deep sea is the largest museum on the planet, yet there’s no lock on the door,’’ he said.

Ballard said Delaney asked him to select 75 critical documents that he used to help make the discovery and which could be incorporated into the exhibit. Ballard said he spent 21/2 weeks in the basement archives of his Lyme home, poring through thousands of pages until he found the most important 75.

``It brought it all back for me,’’ said Ballard, who has been busy making other discoveries since finding the Titanic.

Ballard said the exhibit also has allowed him to reveal details about the discovery that, at the time, he could not discuss, such as how the Titanic search was really cover for a top secret military mission to find two sunken Navy submarines.

Although it’s been 100 years since the Titanic went down and 27 since he discovered it, Ballard said, there’s still something about the ship that captivates people.

``No matter your age, there’s something about the Titanic story that pushes your buttons. I find it amazing that people are still fascinated by it,’’ he said. He added that over the years, he’s found that the Titanic story is rediscovered by every generation.

``It never dies,’’ he said.