Looking to the cloud during tax season

With the April 17 tax return deadline just around the corner, those who have waited until the last minute to file are starting to feel the pressure. Now is the time for people to start scrambling to get their paperwork together to ensure they aren't penalized for filing their information late.

For those who are starting to panic, there is at least one tool that can ease your tax season headaches. Cloud computing is an up-and-coming technology that can be hugely beneficial in helping you file your taxes in time.

Many people will look to online file sharing programs this April. Such platforms allow taxpayers to instantly and securely share information with their accountants, who can then access it on any connected desktop or tablet computer. The programs are generally capable of handling a wide range of file types, including Word documents, PDFs and more.

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) introduced the e-filing option in 1990, which allows users to file their taxes quickly and without having to seal a single envelope. With dozens of cloud-based e-filing software and file sharing programs now available, the IRS claims that nearly 1 billion tax returns have been filed online since the option was first offered.