by Bryan Belrad

Created on: January 02, 2009

There are more ways to prepare your tax return than ever before. Millions will opt for H&R Block or Jackson Hewitt for their instant' refund programs. But professional tax preparation can be expensive, and refund anticipation loans (yes, the instant refunds are loans) can be quite pricey.

If you need money now, these might be your only option. But, if you're in not so much of a rush, you can save yourself thousands by choosing an alternative.

Millions more will use a computer program like TaxCut or TurboTax . These are inexpensive alternatives that allow a tax-savvy budgeteer to find the appropriate return and documents, fill everything out fairly easily, and get it all sent off via e-file. It all costs, but it's fast, and pretty cheap. Last year, that's what I did, and I had my return appear in my bank account by the magic of direct deposit in just 11 business days.

Others will do their returns the old-fashioned way, filling out the forms by hand. That's all well and good, if that's what you like to do.
But it's time-consuming, slow, and highly susceptible to error. Not to mention, a paper return is far more likely to trigger an audit, every taxpayer's nightmare.

There is one advantage to using paper returns: they're free. But they aren't the only
free option.

This year, I learned about another tax service. It's just as fast and easy to use as the best tax software suites, it automatically calculates your refund while you work, and it checks for errors. It's a website called TaxSlayer.com

Oh, I almost forgot the best part: it's free.

I gave TaxSlayer a trial run today (I haven't yet received my W-2s, so I'll have to wait a bit before filing for real), and I was impressed. The menus are easy to navigate, and all the information can be input fast. My taxes are fairly complex, with kids, tuition, business expenses, and all manner of details.

It took me under an hour.
(Full disclosure: I've been doing taxes and helping others with their own for years, so I'm probably faster at it than most).

The only time you pay anything is when you e-file, at the very end. It costs $9.95, which is roughly half what it costs to e-file through the brand name tax programs, and just a fraction of what going to a tax store would run.

On the down side, when you create your account, you have to go through some special offers. Not to worry: it's only one screen, and some of the offers might actually be useful. For example, one is an offer to open a Chase deposit account, which you might then

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