NGPF is excited to announce the release of a new Taxes activity - INTERACTIVE: TurboTax Simulation! In this activity, students have the opportunity to file a fake tax return for numerous, fictional personas using an educational simulator of the TurboTax software developed by Intuit Education. 

A few things to note: 

• The simulation does not collect any student data - students use a fake email address
• Many teachers like to do the popular CALCULATE: Completing a 1040 activity, in which students file a paper 1040 form for fictional personas. By doing this activity, students can better understand how the different line items in the actual 1040 relate to the steps in the tax filing software 
• Read through the TEACHER GUIDE for this activity (found in the NGPF Answer Key spreadsheet) for more tips and steps to take before implementing this activity in your classroom! 
• Some teachers have encountered a Chrome error when using the simulation. But, have no fear! Just make sure that you've clicked to the simulation from the activity document itself, rather than typing out the url (which makes it more likely to encounter an error!)

We hope you enjoy using this activity in your classroom! Let us know how it goes! 

About the Author

Sonia Dalal

Sonia has always been passionate about instruction and improving students' learning experiences. She's come a long way since her days as a first grader, when she would "teach" music and read to her very attentive stuffed animals after school. Since then, she has taught students as a K-12 tutor, worked in several EdTech startups in the Bay Area, and completed her Ed.M in Education from the Harvard Graduate School of Education. She is passionate about bringing the high quality personal finance content and instruction she wished she'd received in school to the next generation of students and educators. When she isn't crafting lesson guides or working with teachers, Sonia loves to spend her time singing, being outdoors, and adventuring with family and friends!