CONSUMER BRIEFS / TAXES

Electronically filing your federal tax return free with the Internal Revenue Service will be available to more people than ever this year. The IRS raised the maximum adjusted gross income to qualify for this preparer-assisted service to $56,000 for 2009.

If your paychecks are a little higher than that, this year the IRS has come up with a way for anyone to file taxes electronically for free. It’s called Free File Fillable Forms and lets do-it-yourselfers fill out electronic versions of the traditional paper federal returns.

Fillable Forms is more like a paper tax return, where you must figure out your deductions and taxes on your own. Fillable Forms, however, will do basic math calculations for you, the IRS says.