My kids come home all the time with stories that they hear at school. My friends and relatives forward me “concerning” messages. I even see questionable posts in my forum. But it’s not very often that I fall for the Urban Legends. Want to know my secret? Snopes.com. I am an AVID reader at Snopes! Every time I hear anything that sounds the least bit suspicious, I head right to Snopes.

For example, I saw on a professional forum the other day a story posted about a “friend of a friend” (as they always are) who was pulled over by someone posing as a police officer and did not know the special “code” that she should call to get the state police from her cell phone. The story not only criticized cell phone companies for “hiding” this important information from us but also said to pass this number along to every female you know. The problem? The story was a hoax and the number wasn’t even right. Imagine telling your teenage daughters to use the number and then in the case of a real emergency you find out that it was an urban legend and she should have just dialed 911?

Snopes.com is the best online authority for urban legends. You can search by keyword or subject matter or just even see what has been added most recently. They research whether the stories are fact, fiction, undetermined, or all of the above. So if you are wondering whether Sears was really advertising grills to cook babies (true) or if you visit the Cash for Clunkers website your computer becomes government property (false), you should check out Snopes.

Cindy has been busy revamping her Pet Connection site. It looks so much better! I think the new theme is more professional and a little easier on the eyes. She still has a little bit of work to do on it, but I think that you will like it. You can check out her pet blog here: Pet Connection.

Are you one of those people who puts off your taxes until the last possible minute? I’m one of those people who actually loved my tax class in law school! Although my handing out tax advice over the Internet would be in violation of some pretty serious state licensing laws, I’d still like to be able to help in any way that I can.

First of all, the mother of all tax websites–the Internal Revenue Service! Whether you are an individual, a business, a corporation, or a non-profit, you will find advice in both legal terms and layman’s terms on this website. You may even qualify for Free File, an electronic tax preparation service with online submission. 1040 Central has advice on tax law changes, files and forms, and fraudulent schemes. With IRS eFile, you can file your return online and have your refund direct deposited quicker than ever.

Parents have special tax needs and must know the credits and deductions available to them. The IRS Parents site includes information on the child tax credit, education credits (including the Hope Credit and the Lifetime Learning Credit), child and dependent care, and adoption .

Need a little help putting your return together? You have three main choices. The first is paying a CPA. If you were going that route, you probably would not have been searching online in March or April for tax advice. So we will talk about the other two choices–tax software and online tax preparation.

H&R Block offers a variety of different choices. They offer a Tax Calculator and also break down the Tax Law Changes. H&R Block’s Signature Online Tax Product lets you complete your tax return online or with tax software. Either way, you can electronically submit your return to an H&R Block tax professional who will review, correct any errors found, sign and e-file your return at no additional charge. TaxCut Standard is software that you load onto your computer that takes you through a series of questions to compile your return. Although it does not feature the professional review, it will still help you maximize your deductions.

The main difference between an online tax product and tax software is that you must be connected to the Internet while you use the online product. You will create a username and password and will connect to the program through your Internet browser. Sometimes you will be able to download information from previous years or even W-2 information rather than having to retype it. While I personally prefer an online tax service, you have a wider range of options with the stand-alone software.

Other tax programs can be purchased from many different sources. Walmart.com and Target.com sell various tax programs.

And after all of this, don’t forget about your state taxes!  Visit your local library or your state’s website for state-specific information. Many of the programs listed above will help you file your state as well as your federal return for little or no extra cost. Whatever you choose, just make sure that you file. If you owe, you are better off filing and working out a payment plan than letting it build up and paying penalties in the years to come. And if you are owed a refund, why let the government hold it for one more minute?

After being online for four years, we have decided to try something completely different! Because of our love of Wordpress (and our love-hate relationship with regular HTML), we have decided to switch all of Helping Moms Connect over to a Wordpress blog with a theme that acts like a CMS. In the next few days, you will be seeing some major changes here. Please bear with us as we tinker a little bit. We have a lot of customizing to do to get things just how we want them. But the new site will be more interactive, prettier, and more easy to keep up with.