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The average cost of hiring an accountant to do your taxes is $273, while a national tax preparation company such as H&R Block will set you back $154 on average. You can cut your tax-preparation expense dramatically by using commercial software to do your own taxes, which costs about $69 for the average tax return.

However, if you made less than $64,000 in 2016, there's an IRS program that could allow you to use top-selling tax-prep software absolutely free.

According to a survey by personal finance website NerdWallet, more than one-third of U.S. taxpayers who make less than $50,000 per year hire a tax professional or a national tax prep company.

IRS Free File can help you maximize your tax refund. Image Source: Getty Images.

However, thanks to the IRS Free File program, these people may qualify to do their taxes absolutely free with well-known software like TurboTax and TaxAct.

If your adjusted gross income (AGI) for 2016 was $64,000 or less, you qualify for the IRS's Free File program. Depending on your income, age, state of residence, and tax situation, you'll have at least one free software option you can use, and probably more. According to the IRS, this includes 70% of all taxpayers -- meaning that 100 million people are eligible to do their taxes for free.

As of this writing, there are a dozen software programs listed on the IRS Free File website, although not all of these are available to all taxpayers who meet the sub-$64,000 income requirement. Each individual program has its own requirements to qualify for a free return. Some will also allow you to file your state return for free, while there is a fee involved with others.

Here's a quick guide to the software programs that participate in Free File, and the requirement of each. Or, you can input your information and see all of your options with this IRS tool.

Program

Income Requirement (AGI)

Other Requirements

1040.com Free File Edition

$58,000 or less or eligible for EITC

Age 52 or younger

Free1040TaxReturn.com

$64,000 or less

Age 70 or younger

Not a resident of FL, NV, TN, TX, or WA

TaxSlayer

$63,000 or less

Age 52 or younger

TurboTax All Free

$33,000 or less or eligible for EITC

None

eSmart Free File Edition

$64,000 or less

Ages 18 to 54

FileYourTaxes.com

AGI between $9,000 and $64,000

Ages 15 to 65

H&R Block Free File

$64,000 or less or eligible for EITC

Ages 17 to 50

FreeTaxUSA IRS Free File Edition

$51,000 or less

Ages 17 to 60

ezTaxReturn.com

$64,000 or less

Must reside in: AL, AR, AZ, CA, CO, GA, IL, LA, MA, MD, MI, MO, MS, NC, NJ, OH, PA, VA, or WI

TaxAct Free File

$52,000 or less or eligible for EITC

Age 56 or younger (all ages if eligible for EITC)

Online Taxes at OLT.com

AGI between $13,000 and $64,000

None

1040NOW.NET

$64,000 or less

Must reside in: AL, AR, AZ, CA, GA, IA, ID, IN, KY, MI, MN, MO, MS, NC, ND, NY, OK, OR, RI, SC, VA, VT, or WV

Or age 60 or younger and a resident of: CO, CT, DE, HI, IL, KS, LA, MA, MD, ME, MT, NE, NJ, NM, OH, PA, UT, or WI

Data Source: IRS.

Before you get started, be sure to gather the following information:

It may seem silly to pay for tax preparation if you don't have to, but that's exactly what millions of Americans do.

Check out the IRS Free File program if you make less than $64,000. You may be surprised at how easy some of these software programs make doing your own taxes, and it could put extra money in your pocket when your refund arrives.

The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

Go here to see the original:
Do Your Taxes for Free In 2017 -- Here's How - Motley Fool

WHEN THE Supreme Court declared in 2008 that the Second Amendment guarantees an individual right to own guns, the justices were careful to assure that various gun control measures could still pass constitutional muster. For example, the court wrote that weapons that are most useful in military service M-16 rifles and the like may be banned.

Since then, appeals courts have had to sort out how that logic applies to specific state-level gun laws. The latest is the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit, which considered a challenge to Marylands restrictions on military-style rifles often referred to as assault rifles and high-capacity magazines. The appeals court rightly found that Marylands law is perfectly reasonable and that the alternative logic dissenters favored is exceptionally dangerous.

For all of the ink the court spilled, its decision centered on a few basic principles. The rifles and magazines that Maryland restricted are military-grade, bear features that make them exceptionally deadly and are unnecessary for self-defense.

The court noted that large-capacity magazines enable shooters to inflict mass casualties while depriving victims and law enforcement officers of opportunities to escape or overwhelm the shooters while they reload their weapons. Good guys with large magazines also may fire many more shots than necessary, endangering bystanders. Military-style rifles, meanwhile, bear a combination of features that increase their lethality: They fire heavy ammunition; they bear flash suppressors that can conceal a shooters location; they can accept grenade launchers, night sights and bayonets.

Throughout, the court could point to a variety of specific examples of mass shootings, from Newtown to San Bernardino to Virginia Tech to Orlando, in which the devices Marylands law regulates were used. More children might have escaped Sandy Hook Elementary Schools classrooms, for example, if the shooter did not have a 30-round magazine. That the magazine was not even larger than that some can hold up to 100 rounds may have saved the lives of nine children who escaped as the gunman reloaded. Given the Supreme Courts plain language about M-16s, it is no stretch of logic to find that the Second Amendment does not protect owning these military-style weapons and accoutrements, or that Maryland had an interest in restricting them.

The courts dissenters argued that military-style rifles and large-capacity magazines are popular tools for self-defense and other legal activities, and as such the government has practically no latitude to restrict ownership of them or, in effect, to do much of anything else in the realm of gun control. This is illogical; an extremely lethal weapon may be popular, but that does not make it constitutionally protected. Moreover, the weapons that Maryland sought to regulate here are emphatically not defensive in nature, Judge J. Harvie Wilkinson III responded in a concurring opinion. If this statute is struck down, it is difficult to see what class of non-automatic firearms could ever be regulated. If these weapons are outside the legislative compass, then virtually all weapons will be.

Neither the majority on the 4th Circuit nor a reasonable reading of the Constitution demands that extreme result.

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Logic wins out on a Maryland gun law - Washington Post

AmmoLand Shooting Sports News

4th Circuit Rules Common Rifles not Protected by Second Amendment AmmoLand Shooting Sports News Arizona -(Ammoland.com)-On 21 February, 2017, the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that common semi-automatic rifles are not protected by the Second Amendment of the Constitution. The ban includes semi-automatic rifles that can take detachable ...

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4th Circuit Rules Common Rifles not Protected by Second Amendment - AmmoLand Shooting Sports News

By Dimitra DeFotis

A documentary short made about the migrant and refugee crisis in Greece received an Academy Awardnomination.

The 2017 Oscars will be doled out Sunday night. The film, 4.1 Miles, captures drama on one day in October 2015as the Greek coast guard rescues refugees and migrants in the choppy waters between Turkey and the Greek island of Lesbos, which is 4.1 miles away. It was directed by Daphne Matziaraki, herself an immigrant from Greece who completed the doc as her thesis at the University of California Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism. It was published by The New York Times Op-Doc video portal.

In the film, a Lesbos island coast guard leader says of the refugees:

I cant reassure them. Its impossible. When I look into their eyes, I see their memories of war. and we see these families losing each other in the Greek sea. In the sea of a peaceful country. Because of the way they have to cross

Financially troubledGreece has balked at housing and feeding let alone employing the flood of people moving into Europe. As for the Greek economy, little progress was made this week on its bailout review with Eurozone creditors. The Global X MSCI Greece exchange-traded fund (GREK) was fractionally higher on the week. See our post, Greece: ETF Rises, But Is Austerity Over?Also see our Penta Daily post, Refugee Crisis: How to Help.

Deadline Hollywood interviewed the directoron refugees, Greece and more.

For investors, see our free post onGreece, Turkey, Refugees, Crisis & NATO from James Stavridis, a retired U.S. Navy admiral and dean of the Fletcher School of law and diplomacy at Tufts University. Also see ourposts on the Greek economy, and on Turkey for investors.

Here is the original post:
Greek Migrant Crisis Film Nominated For Oscar - Emerging Markets ... - Barron's (blog)

Migrant crisis is not the issue of Serbia, it is a European challenge that requires a joint solution, said the Director General of the European Commissions DG NEAR Christian Danielsson following a visit to the migrant reception centre in Obrenovac, the Delegation of the European Union to Serbia reports.

Danielsson told the press that the reception centre in Obrenovac, just as any other similar facility in Serbia, was an example of close cooperation between Serbia and the EU.

He said that the EU would continue to financially help Serbia manage those centres, noting that since spring 2015 the EU has provided Serbia EUR50 million to cover food and other costs, Delegation reports.

Danielsson said that the EU also donated vehicles for Serbian border police and the Commissariat for Refugees.

Danielsson also visited the thermal power plant Nikola Tesla in Obrenovac together with Serbian Minister of Energy Aleksandar Anti.

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Danielsson: Migrant crisis is not issue of Serbia, European challenge - European Western Balkans (press release)