Website of the month: FirstGov

Billed as “the first-ever government website to provide the public with easy, one-stop access to all online U.S. federal government resources,” www.firstgov.gov is worth a visit. The site provides access to a broad range of information on government-related services, programs, and benefits. The “money and taxes” category (“federal government information and tips about money, credit, taxes, and investing, as well as consumer antitheft and fraud information”) includes pages with federal tax statistics, information on electronic filing and taxpayer assistance, and IRS forms and publications. Pages download quickly, links are current, and the design is user-friendly enough (and even humorous, at times) to serve as an example of how the Internet can be helpful in ways that many citizens would never associate with the government.

As one would expect, the website is linked extensively to other government agencies, including the Treasury Department and the SEC, although most users that need those resources already know where they are and are looking for specific information. Some users might be surprised to read attention-getting headlines such as “Disagree with the IRS? You May Have the Right to Appeal” and “Not Happily Ever After? Check out Our Spousal Tax Relief Eligibility Explorer” on this government site.

The website is worth recommending to do-it-yourselfers and those interested in doing some of their own research on federal questions.

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