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They're not perfect, but I've had success filing with FreeTaxUSA - federal is free, state is $15: https://www.freetaxusa.com/ https://www.freetaxusa.com/ Obvi
by untog 8y ago
They're not perfect, but I've had success filing with FreeTaxUSA - federal is free, state is $15:
https://www.freetaxusa.com/ https://www.freetaxusa.com/
Obviously too late for people this year, and my tax situation is relatively straightforward so I can't speak to how well it handles edge cases, but the first year I used it I went through the process with both TurboTax and FreeTaxUSA and got the exact same estimated refund.
The last straw with TurboTax was when I needed to get some details from a previous year's tax return and found out that they would not let me access a return I'd paid to file with them unless I upgraded my plan. Absolute scum. I took the opportunity to also close my Mint account (same parent company as TurboTax) which I barely use and has been sending all kinds of transaction data for them to profit from.
- tylerrobinson 8y agoI'm no TurboTax apologist, but really? I think you always have access to the PDF versions of past years' tax returns upon signing in to your account.
- untog 8y agoJust tried it again: > It looks like you need to pay first to instantly access your TurboTax returns > For instructions on how to access your returns, click help in the upper right hand corner of your screen and type “Prior Year Return” into the search box and when I do that: > To access your prior year return before you file, you have to: > Be in an upgraded version of TurboTax (or add PLUS to TurboTax Free Edition). The fact that it makes you search their help system for the answer to your question is just the icing on the cake...
- tylerrobinson 8y agoInteresting. Now that I think about it, maybe I've only attempted to do this after paying for the current year's software. I also pay for the self-employed version, which might play a part. My original thinking was coming from going through the mortgage application process last year, and I was able to retrieve my previous PDFs mid-year without a problem.
- mikeash 8y agoIt’s especially egregious since the IRS will give you a transcript for free.
- int_19h 8y agoTurboTax will also give you the complete return free... if you download it right after you file it. (This sort of thing is why it's a good idea to do just that regardless of which service you're using.)
- hawkesnest 8y agoI had the same experience. They hold your previous years' filings hostage for some fee. While I admit it was my fault for not having my previous 1040 handy at the time (It was somewhere "safe" and mildly inconvenient) this practice surprised me.
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- endtime 8y agoI used FreeTaxUSA last year and this year. Very cheap, the free support tier was quick and helpful, and they even saved me some time by prefilling applicable fields from last year.
- ApolloFortyNine 8y agoI used Free Tax USA this year, and it ended up giving me the same number Turbo Tax did (since you can do Turbo Tax for free until the end). My taxes include a multitude of stock sales, losses (from calls and puts), as well as my W2. It takes a little longer to fill out then Turbo Tax due to the lack of integrations with banks and what not, but I still finished the whole thing in less than an hour. It's free for Federal, and they wanted something like $10 for my state so I did it out of lazyness.
- anilshanbhag 8y agoI was seriously considering running ads for FreeTaxUSA out of disgust for TurboTax, it is sad that information flows so slowly through the world :/
- JudgeWapner 8y agoit can have unexpected benefits too, however. All it takes is one viral movement, like #fuckTurboTax and simple guides to file free (with specific detours around the dark patterns) could spread nationwide in a single afternoon. It's just a matter of capturing enough peoples' attention.
- omilu 8y agobeen using turbo tax forever, no more!
- rootsudo 8y agoNot anymore. They paywalled previous returns which were free for the past 5+ years.
- scrooched_moose 8y agoCreditKarma is 100% free for everything. I've used them the last two years without issue, although they dramatically improved the service this last year. It was a little rough year 1.
- briffle 8y agoI want to try CreditKarma's free filing, but since its free, I'm the product, and i'm not sure what that means, when handing them all my tax info yet..
- scrooched_moose 8y agoAdmittedly I was a little concerned by that, but since I already use them for credit monitoring I didn't feel like I was handing them all that much more information. Better to give them a little more info, than involve another company who may still use my info even after I pay them. I do like they're at least pretty transparent about their business model: https://help.creditkarma.com/hc/en-us/articles/202414090-Is-Credit-Karma-really-free- https://help.creditkarma.com/hc/en-us/articles/202414090-Is-... https://www.investopedia.com/articles/personal-finance/010815/why-credit-karma-free-how-it-makes-money.asp https://www.investopedia.com/articles/personal-finance/01081... https://www.moneyunder30.com/credit-karma https://www.moneyunder30.com/credit-karma
- dentemple 8y agoMate, even when you do pay for services, you're still getting your data sold to third-party vendors. So you might as well utilize companies that provide an actually good product.
- Gaelan 8y agoDo the offline/desktop versions of TurboTax, etc do this? Not arguing, just surprised
- jschwartzi 8y ago
- arthurdenture 8y ago+1 to freetaxusa. I started using them a decade ago when I first had to file taxes, and I've been pleasantly surprised that they have remained a good choice this whole time. The product doesn't even feel like it has changed much (other than the never-ending tax law changes) over the years, which is a rarity for web-based products. It just does what it needs to do.
- mars4rp 8y agoif you are CA resident and don't have a very complicated tax return, you could file the state for free using Franchise Tax Board's CalFile.
- 0x0000000 8y agoI've also been using FreeTaxUSA for the past couple years and have been pretty happy, but this year, for the first time, they went down for several hours on April 15[0] (I know, I know, my fault for procrastinating). I ended up filing via CreditKarma about 45 minutes before midnight, thankfully FreeTaxUSA came online long enough for me to pull up last year's return to get my AGI for the necessary IRS identity verification. I'll probably try them again next year, but CreditKarma worked out pretty well (they've come a long way since the first version a couple years ago) and doesn't charge for state filing. The big downside is that you have to agree to let them use whatever data they pull in as part of your profile for better marketing etc. [0] https://twitter.com/FreeTaxUSA/status/1117953907550855168 https://twitter.com/FreeTaxUSA/status/1117953907550855168
- pubutil 8y agoI definitely recommend FreeTaxUSA. I work 1099, and my tax burden was a not-insignificant amount (to me) this year. I went through TurboTax, CreditKarma, and FTUSA’s processes and found: -Of the three options, TurboTax returned the highest amount owed to federal and state govt -CreditKarma and FTUSA’s federal totals owed were ~$2k less than TT, and a few hundred $ less owed for state -FTUSA was the least expensive option of the three, at ~$80 less owed than CreditKarma I’m not sure why the totals were different, but it was absolutely worth it to go through the process three times. Especially to not support Intuit’s lobbying practices.
- omilu 8y agonot to defend turbo tax but you can download the tax return as a pdf when you file.