Until April 15th we will be in “tax season”. Many people have overpaid on their taxes all year and are entitled to a refund of at least some of the federal income tax that they have paid (and some other people will be receiving a “refund” without really paying taxes, but I will leave that to the politics gurus). I have been the recipient of many tax refunds (hey, it is a perk of having 4 kids) and I know the excitement that comes from getting a little extra money in your account.

There are all kinds of ways to make filing taxes and getting the refund check easier and quicker. Most of the major tax preparers will even give you a refund check the moment you file your taxes. Of course you pay for it. It is a little easy to pay exorbitant fees with money you have never seen, but it is a huge waste of your hard-earned tax dollars.

You friendly Business & Technology editor would like to encourage you to refrain from wasting your money. A little patience can go a long way. The good thing is that the sooner you file your taxes the faster the refund check (or direct deposit) arrives. Go ahead and file your taxes now and get your check. Just don’t be taken by “rapid refund” or tax loan scams.

TaxGirl (while not local to Nashville) has a good post about these scams. She has a great comment on that post that I would like to highlight:

“The real problem is that the way that the fees/interest are calculated, it isn’t always clear what the rates actually are. I also think that these companies who sell these loans overstate how long the IRS would otherwise take to send a refund. Over the past several years, I have volunteered at a local senior center to prepare taxes through IRS’ VITA program. I am sick at the number of seniors on fixed income who were convinced by these companies that it would take “months” to get their money from IRS rather than the “instant” cash through this system. With direct debit, most of my seniors who file basic returns got their refunds - interest free! - through IRS in about 2-4 weeks.

Just think, you may never get a pay out for waiting 2-4 weeks like you will when you resist a rapid refund. Happy Tax Season!