Business

Help for a taxing time of the year

If you’re looking for an app that provides current and past tax rates and helps you calculate what you owe, you might want to check out Bloomberg BNA’s Quick Tax Reference App.

The app is an electronic version of the reference guide that Bloomberg provides to tax preparers. The app provides tax rates for 2012, 2011 and even 2013, if you want to get a head start on next year’s return. You can switch between years at the bottom of the app.

Bloomberg provides standard deductions, depending on your filing status; the percentage tax rate on capital gains and dividends; and pension and retirement-plan rules.

The app lets you calculate how much income tax you owe by selecting your filing status, entering your taxable income manually or using the slider on the app. You can also tap a button to see a condensed version of the IRS’s comprehensive tax table.

However, while all of the information in Bloomberg’s app comes from the government, and is accurate and easier to access than scrolling through hundreds of pages of instructions, it is not as comprehensive or user-friendly as the IRS’s instructions.

So it’s probably best used for quick calculations or checking figures on the go.

Bloomberg’s app is free for the iPhone, BlackBerry and Android-based phones.