Best Tax Guide for a mere mortal

IRS Publication 17. Which can be had for free.

Most of which appear to take the (non-copyrightable) text of Pub 17, dress it up a little, and sell it for $20+.

-- Rich Carreiro snipped-for-privacy@animato.arlington.ma.us

IRS Publication 17. And it's free at

-- Phil Marti Clarksburg, MD

Pub 17 is not adequate for the mere mortal I have in mind. A number of years ago, Consumer Reports had a more annotated guide. I believe there were others.

The Consumers Report web site states:

"Books. They include "Taxes 2006 for Dummies" and J.K. Lasser's "Your Income Tax 2006" (for 2005 taxes), which can be bought for less than $15 each, and often provide more guidance than the Internal Revenue Service's own instruction booklets."

And you believe that.

It's a decent business to be in. You take the IRS pubs which are not copyrighted, you revise some text, you add some text, and you sell it for $15.

Well, there's your answer then.

I'll STILL ask a vote for Publication 17. If the "mere mortal" is filing anything other than an EZ form AND Pub 17 is beyond them, have them use a preparer.