<prompt> Human: Its not too early to start thinking about filing taxes. As a reminder, the IRSs Free File program allows those with incomes under 58k to file their federal taxes for no charge in a partnership with the Free File Alliance Many states also partner with the FFA to offer free state tax returns to those that qualify, and some states offer free e-filing for all taxpayers.What can you do in December to prepare for tax season? Finish up any IRA contributions for 2014 you have until April 15, 2015 to make 2014 IRA contributions. See how your expected tax burden compares to your year to date withholding - with one month left to go, you can still probably increase or decrease your last paychecks withholdings if you are under or over. Use the IRS Withholding Calculator or do a dummy return in Turbotax to see what your expected tax burden is going to be. If you have any capital losses or capital gains you are considering realizing, you have a month left to do it. Look up the schedules your various financial institutions are planning on issuing your documentation 1099s, etc so you can watch for them. Ask your employer when you will receive your W-2. If you are considering professional tax preparation and havent done so before or are switching preparers, now is the time to start asking around to find a tax preparer. If you have an established relationship, its always nice to reach out to say you willwill not be going with the same person again. Im sure youll have ideas as well, leave them in the comments.Links to state tax portals are below:Alabama - Free e-filing: Alaska - No state income tax.Arizona - Partners with several major tax software providers: Arkansas - Partners with several major tax software providers: California - Free filing through CalFile: Colorado - Free filing through Revenue Online: Connecticut - Free e-filing through the Taxpayer Services Center: Delaware - Online filing: District of Columbia - Free e-filing through the Taxpayer Services Center: Florida - No state income tax.Georgia - Partners with several major tax software providers: Hawaii - Free e-filing fee to make a payment: Idaho - Free e-filing for qualifying taxpayers: Illinois - Free e-filing: Indiana - Free e-filing for qualifying taxpayers: Iowa - Free e-filing for qualifying taxpayers: Kansas - Free e-filing: Kentucky - E-filing: Louisiana - Free e-filing: Maine - Free iFile: Maryland - Free iFile: Massachusetts - WebFile: Michigan - Free e-filing for qualifying taxpayers: Minnesota - Free e-filing for qualifying taxpayers: Mississippi - Partners with several major tax software providers: Missouri - Partners with several major tax software providers: Montana - e-filing through the Taxpayer Access Point: Nebraska - Free NebFile: Nevada - No state income tax.New Hampshire - No state income tax.New Jersey - Free NJWebFile not updated yet for 2014: New Mexico - e-filing through the Taxpayer Access Point: New York - Free e-filing for qualifying taxpayers: North Carolina - Free e-filing for qualifying taxpayers: North Dakota - Free e-filing for qualifying taxpayers: Ohio - Free e-filing: Oklahoma - Free e-filing for qualifying taxpayers: Oregon - Free e-filing for qualifying taxpayers: Pennsylvania - Free e-filing for qualifying taxpayers: Rhode Island - Partners with several major tax software providers: South Carolina - Partners with several major tax software providers: South Dakota - No state income tax.Tennessee - No state income tax.Texas - No state income tax.Utah - e-filing through the Taxpayer Access Point: Vermont - Partners with several major tax software providers: Virginia - Partners with several major tax software providers: Washington - No state income tax.West Virginia - Partners with several major tax software providers: Wisconsin - e-filing through WI efile: Wyoming - No state income tax.  <response>: Heres what, in my opinion, is a better tip: You get what you pay for.I used the free software offered by HR Block for two years, and each year I owed around 1,000 to the government, mostly because I have a near full-ride to my university and the portion of those scholarships not used for tuition are taxable. I then tried a paid software TaxACT, which cost me less than 50 to file both federal and state taxes, and it identified an additional federal tax credit for education and a way for me to claim it I previously had been unable to claim it because all my expenses were covered by scholarships. It also found a corresponding state tax credit within my state. These credits that the paid software advised me to consider changed what would have been a 1,000 balance into a 1,500 refund.I turned less than 50 in the cost of the tax software into a 2,500 gain, and it took me only the few hours that I used to do my taxes. Thats easily the second best investment, by annualized rate of return, that I will ever make in my life, Im sure.My tax return isnt even difficult, and still, the free stuff failed to identify key tax credits that were extremely important to my return. So again, you get what you pay for. Definitely if you have a complicated return, but also even if you have a simple one, Id heavily advise you to pay the money for a decent and well-known tax software. It could pay off very well, as it did for me.Also, by using an offer that came out shortly after filing my taxes, I bought that same software for the 2014 filing year at only 19. My tax situation is the same as last year, so Im about to turn 19 into a 2,500 gain. If you picked up earlier on where I called the earlier gain the second best investment, this will be the first. 