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Tis the season for federal and state tax returns! Why the state is more likable. Unless you are a large behemoth of a corporation, doing offshore business with foreign labor, enjoying huge tax breaks, you're probably a member of the somewhat underground (few would admit to membership publicly), 'I hate the IRS' club. The IRS is feared by most people, no matter how on the up and up you might be.

The IRS code is, to say the least, voluminous, with caveats and worksheets you might easily drown in while trying to correctly complete your federal Chula Vista state income tax return. If you're able to use the short form, 1040-EZ, you probably won't get a headache in the process, but you also won't get a refund sizable enough to do more than pay your past due power bill. For anything more complicated, you definitely need a professional to do the deed.

On the other hand, once you've muddled through your federal return, your state tax return in Chula Vista is more like comic relief. Why do the state tax return forms seem so simple and non-threatening? You get the distinct feeling that you can get the job done quickly and accurately, without downing a couple of aspirin or sobbing throughout the process. For one thing, the booklet for the state tax return is about half the size of the IRS instruction booklet and, to my way of thinking, seems to be written in language that more closely resembles English.

You barely need to take more than a cursory look at the San Diego state tax returns booklet, because the state tax form contains most of the explanatory information you need, line by line. You plug in income amounts, transfer some figures from lines such-and-such from your federal return, enter your standard deduction, which in my state is conveniently provided on the back of the filing form, then subtract this from that and you're done! A relative piece of cake. However, before you sit down at your desk to begin the tax return filing process, there are a few caveats you should be aware of before you begin.

In years past, if your income fell below a certain level, you could file both your federal and state tax returns at no cost. Today, the trend is for online tax preparers to do your federal return for free, but attach a charge for the state tax preparation, with rates ranging from about $8-15. The fees for the state filing don't seem justified, since it's the easier task. There must be federal laws stipulating that free federal filings must be available for people in lower income brackets, but no such provisions regarding the states.

Be aware that if you file your federal return electronically online and don't complete and e-file your state taxes at the same time, you lose the option to e-file with that tax preparation service at a later time. This happened to me a couple of years ago. It was late at night by the time I was done with the federal part. Anxious to get that federal refund in the works ASAP, I e-filed before hanging it up for the night.

The next morning, I was electronically advised that both must be filed at the same time. This proved to be a small hassle, preparing the state income tax returns of San Diego manually and mailing it via snail mail. So, the moral to the story is to do all at once. Because the dollar amount of state tax refunds are usually nothing to write home about, and the preparation is simple, you might consider saving a few bucks by filling out your state tax return yourself, as soon as you're done with the feds and sending it through the mail.

In any case, filing early is the key. Most states will get a check to you in about 4 weeks, perhaps less. Why cannot the IRS be more like the states?