There's been a free e-file since 2009 according to archive.org. Looks like this was the selection of forms at the time: https://web.archive.org/web/20090418011

There's been a free e-file since 2009 according to archive.org. Looks like this was the selection of forms at the time: https://web.archive.org/web/20090418011703/http://www.irs.gov/efile/article/0,,id=202713,00.html https://web.archive.org/web/20090418011703/http://www.irs.go... I've used it for years. It's just the paper forms with some auto-calculation built in. I've never had a company do my taxes for me so it's a little hard for me to even imagine the value-add for simple taxes. Presumably they ask for the same information that's on the form. I imagine Intuit is still ripping us off behind the scenes even if it's free at point of use, but maybe they don't get a good deal and are happy to do it free/cheap as long as they can make it have a scary enough UX to get you to pay them instead.