Now that Groundhog Day has come and gone, the April 15 deadline for filing annual income taxes looms ever closer. At the Library, we have copies of common Federal and Wisconsin state income tax forms in our café on the lower level.
Many of our patrons have noted that we don’t offer as many copies as we have in the past. Last year, even after ordering about half of the previous year’s total number of forms, we still ended up recycling several boxes of unused forms. Citizens are urged to file their taxes electronically if possible, to save on paper and to receive their refunds more quickly.
But, if you need tax forms and we don’t have them on hand, you can still find them. On our homepage, we have links to the IRS and the Wisconsin Dept. of Revenue, where all forms are located and are available (including a direct link to the Homestead credit forms). You may download or print their necessary forms, at the Library or at home (for free). We encourage patrons with home internet access to do this at home to avoid printing charges.
The state government is particularly keen that the public file electronically. Last year, approximately one million state tax forms were delivered to public libraries in Wisconsin. Of those one million forms, only 75,000 (7.5%) were actually returned to be filed by the Department of Revenue. 925,000 forms were, essentially, wasted. (This count does not include the 600,000 instruction booklets sent out to libraries in addition to forms.)
Last year, 71% of state taxpayers filed electronically – and that should rise again this year. All Wisconsin residents can file state taxes online for free at www.revenue.wi.gov with the e-file application. Additionally, check the IRS website to see if you qualify for free online filing for Federal taxes.
If you need assistance in finding the form you need online, let our staff know at the Main Desk. We plan on receiving paper copies of the most-common forms as long as they are available in future years, but do encourage folks who can e-file to try it this year.
Good luck!
