Editor’s note: Taxes are On Topic in March at FOXBusiness.com. From tips on how to save money when you file to how to avoid an audit, check back throughout the month to find out what you need to know.

Tax season is here, and with it comes the headaches and uncertainty of filing a return. Many people turn to the Internet for more information on taxes, or to file their returns electronically.

According to Joe Chadwick, director of investment services for the Longevity Alliance and Edward Johnson, a member of the Taxpayer Advocacy Panel, the following five Web sites hit the mark for answering tax questions and preparation.

No. 1: The Internal Revenue Service | www.IRS.gov

“The IRS site may not be the most user-friendly, but you couldn’t ask for a more authoritative site,” said Chadwick.

“If you do a Google search for tax help, the vast majority of results you’ll get are for people who want to lend you money for your tax refund, which is the very worst idea. It can be expensive, and if you can possibly wait, please do,” he said. The IRS has increased its turn-around time on refunds in recent years, according to Chadwick, which decreases the need for “refund advance” scams.

People who made less than $54,000 in 2007 can file electronically on the IRS' Web site for free, according to the IRS, via a program called “Free File.”

No. 2: The AARP | www.AARP.org

“If you’re looking for deduction information on retirement and care for aging parents, you should check out the boomer sites,” said Chadwick.  “Sites like AARP have information geared toward the events you may have experienced in the previous year, like significant financial or life transactions.”

Chadwick cited retirement, the death of a family member or spouse and starting a small business as major life transitions that could affect a baby boomer’s taxes.

“[The AARP] site is pretty good about accuracy, and suggesting generic types of checklists that you ought to take the time to go through, especially if you don’t have a financial adviser,” Chadwick said.

No. 3: Turbo Tax | www.TurboTax.com

“To utilize it, you have to pay a fee, but it leads you through the return in a way that asks questions to help you get all the elements of your return in place,” said Chadwick.

Turbo Tax offers a free edition as well as a deluxe edition for $29.95, according to TurboTax.com. The $29.95 version is better for people with more itemized deductions like those of medical or educational nature, according to Chadwick.

Turbo Tax offers “pop-up” questions and suggestions to the user. “It does a pretty good job suggesting things you might be eligible for, even things that are not obvious, such as a conversion to a Roth IRA,” said Chadwick.

Another benefit of TurboTax, according to Johnson, is that it provides online access to a tax professional for $99.00. “That’s pretty cheap for having an actual person help you with your return. If you walked into Jackson Hewitt or H&R Block, you’d end up paying a lot more than that,” Johnson said.

No. 4: Tax Slayer | www.TaxSlayer.com

“In my experience, people don’t usually need any assistance with Tax Slayer,” said Johnson. “It’s easy to use, and for some reason, Tax Slayer is able to handle everything the other sites do at a much cheaper cost.” Tax Slayer charges $9.95 for most filings, according to its site.

Tax Slayer specializes in more complicated forms, like those for the self-employed, according to Johnson.

“We’re seeing more and more self-employed people in America today, especially with the baby boomers, because corporate America isn’t re-hiring them,” he said.  “They need forms like the Schedule SE, and they need access to forms regarding the self-employment tax, Social Security, and Medicare.”

Tax Slayer’s deluxe edition costs $19.95, and includes multiple state returns, and a deduction finder, according to TaxSlayer.com.

No. 5: H&R Block | www.HRBlock.com

“[H&R Block] made ‘error checks’ available in their tax programming, so you can check for errors in your return before you file it,” said Johnson. “This will evaluate all the blocks you filled in to check for consistency in data. If something’s wrong, it will kick it back, because the IRS will not accept returns if they have errors,” he said.

Unlike most of the other online tax programs, H&R block has non-virtual offices around the nation, staffed with professionals. “They have operation centers around all over, so if someone has a problem or issues with what they are doing, they can all someone, or go visit someone,” said Johnson.

Also, H&R Block’s new program called “Tango” allows users to virtually “file” their returns without actually sending off their information. “Tango gives people the option configuring their taxes in a lot of different ways before they file. For example: "A married couple can play around on the site long enough to figure out if it is better for them to file jointly or separately,” Johnson said.

Tax Site Precautions:

Although Web sites like these are great for tax help, Chadwick warns to take caution when surfing the Internet for financial information. “With anything on the Internet, it’s good news and bad news. There is a great wealth of information, but there is virtually no quality control exercised on the [Internet] as a whole, so you have to be a bit cautious even on seemingly benign topics like taxes,” he said.

Also, contrary to what some sites would have you believe, everyone will get their tax returns within 10-21 days, according to Johnson. “Tax sites advertise that they can get you your refunds in 10-21 days, but all of them can do this. This is misleading. It’s not because of any special software or anything they do. It’s because the IRS has gotten better at filing.”