This Year, Taxpayers Will Find More E-Filing Freebies

It seems the way to make it in today's Web world is to offer products and services for free. Now, add electronic tax return filing to the list of Web freebies.

The 1999 tax filing season presents taxpayers with a few new options to prepare and file their tax returns online -- all for free.

Last year, the freebies were reserved mostly for the Form 1040EZ filers. But for 1999, there are some new options for regular ol' 1040 filers.

And regardless of the corporate motives behind giving things away, it's all helping the Internal Revenue Service meet its goal of getting 33.6 million taxpayers to e-file this year, up from 29.3 million last year. So these freebies can't hurt. ...