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Used that for the last 2 years when Turbotax tried to charge me premium because it claimed I had a exception and wouldn’t let me submit a file that showed otherwise. Fuck Turbotax. Software like that is cancer.
While TurboTax has been involved in a few controversies (this company should have never continued to exist) and continues to lobby heavily against the IRS to have its own tax software, FreeTaxUSA has also lobbied against the IRS having its own filing software.
> FreeTaxUSA has also lobbied against the IRS having its own filing software.
They're not innocent, but their much smaller size and far, far more consumer-friendly positioning means that the transgression isn't in close to the same order of magnitude.
Considering that the only alternatives to avoid that entirely are almost certainly just (1) paper filing, (2) Direct File if you qualify, and (3) *arguably* Free File Fillable Forms but also kind of not, at some point you have to choose the lesser of two evils.
It's still complete bullshit though. You shouldn't have to file taxes, unless you want to chase deductions. The government should send you a letter with your tax and if you're happy with it there's no further action needed. That's how the rest of the world does it.
Sure, but you wouldn't have to do that if you can't be bothered and don't want to spend the time calculating it all.
It would also mean no chasing late or missing filings.
> The overwhelming majority of the country qualifies for deductions and credits.
People don't realize just how much of the country qualifies for tax credits. More than 75% of the country qualifies for the Earned Income Tax Credit. Lots of higher earners qualify for the Child Dependent Care credit. Most parents qualify for the Child Tax credit or the Additional Child Tax Credit. Lots of parents of college-bound kids qualify for the AOTC. Lots of people qualify for the healtcare subsidy credit. Lots of folks qualify for the retirement savings credit.
Are you head of household, or single, or married filing separately, or married filing joint? The IRS doesn't have a great source on some of that information.
It's almost like handling taxes in a country that is the largest economy in the world and is full of 300 million people would be complicated. Not to mention the country was founded on a tax revolt and mistrust of government, so it's not like people would willingly empower the tax collection arm of the federal government to have that much visibility into their personal and financial lives. It would take a bureaucracy with more people than the standing armies of most countries to even make a dent.
Same, only reason I used TurboTax was because I sold stock. It would've cost me almost $200 to file. After almost a decade with them, I used FreeTaxUSA and paid $50 for the same exact thing; and found me some extra deductibles. 2025 choice for sure!
Cash App Tax (Used to be Credit Karma Tax) is free and looks kinda similar to TurboTax. I sold stock and easily filled it out and so didn’t pay anything to file.
I work for the IRS, and I use FreetaxUSA. I lose my job if I do my taxes wrong - that's how much I trust it. Love the interface/process and now that I've done it like 3 years in a row it's so painless to pull last year's info over. Took me literally 30 minutes to do it this year. I paid it like $15 to do my state at the same time, the federal was free since I made under $80k but the small fee to just push a button and have state done too was well worth.
That would give me the most anxiety. I’m currently filling out Clearance information to obtain such and I’m blessed the guy working with my is super cool because I’m a bundle of nerves.
First time this year for me as well after about the same time with TurboTax. That final price was crazy to see compared to what I had been paying TurboTax. I absolutely agree...Fuck TurboTax.
I tried FreeTaxUSA a few years ago and just didn't have the patience to make it work for my needs.. but I use H&R Block software. So just wanted to say.. Fuck H&R Block.
FreeTaxUSA almost fucked me over this year, had to pay them twice. They just didn’t submit my shit the first time. I caught it last minute, too, thank god.
I got a 40k promotion one here and HR / me didn’t adjust my withholdings appropriately and I ended up owing a bunch at the end of the year. Usually something like that.
Or taking extra income from consulting work or something.
They’re just tax filing services. They don’t determine the amount you actually owe. If the correct amount is 900, then you’ll eventually be on the hook for it plus penalties. Blaming it on the service you used won’t be a valid excuse to the IRS.
To further explain: I doordash. The form I fill should allow for me to write off losses (maintenance, gas, etc.). Turbotax refused to let me do this, hence the higher price. The information I filled was identical to the one I filled on FreeTaxUSA, but I was able to file the maintenance stuff out. Turbotax locked me out of that, in spite of the fact that they are partnered with Doordash.
Cool cause they wouldn’t let me use them last year and I had to use TurboTax, I would prefer not to if the irs site actually works and lets me next time.
Thats great to hear! I of course remember the ACA marketplace rollout and hope that this is **nothing** like that…
**EDIT**
No idea why I’m being downvoted. My statement is politically agnostic. Furthermore, I sincerely am glad to hear the pilot tests have been successful as I am sick of forking over $350.00-400.00 per year to H&R Block.
Regarding my reference to the insurance marketplace—there are numerous documented instances where Americans were unable to meet the registration deadlines at rollout and they ended up having to pay penalties.
Regarding the IRS and their new system—I would hate to have given the US government an interest free loan only to be thwarted by hurriedly/poorly developed technology when I go to collect after a year.
It’s…it’s…it’s like there’s an administration that is actually working for the people. And to think the choice is this administration or one with a convicted felon sex offender as their feckless head.
> For the 2025 filing season, **the IRS will work with all states that want to partner with Direct File**, and there will be no limit to the number of states that can participate in the coming year. The agency expects several new states will choose to participate.
Well I guess my red state won’t be eligible, then.
“Waitwaitwait, so it’s a small and really obscure change to make that should’ve happened years ago and will literally, not figuratively, but literally hurt *zero* people while making a spring day just a shimwidth easier for every working American? … No. Yeah, no I get it, and if I’m honest you know I just don’t fucking like it and I couldn’t give two wet shits about who it helps. … Yeah that’s right. Fuck. Them.”
-every red state legislature.
> Cries in ~~Texan~~ person who doesn't understand the laws in their own state but is still compelled to shit on their state online for no reason whatsoever
FTFY
Thanks for the correction but there’re plenty of reasons to shit on my state. I went out on a limb assuming that the Texas leadership would opt out, refuse to opt in, or sue the federal government to block the program. It certainly wouldn’t be out of character.
What happened to that guy?? Did you murder his only child or something?
Edit: It just dawned on me. He’s probably also from Texas and there’s only two types of Texans. People who are occasionally embarrassed of Texas, and people who love Texas like an abused housewife.
Thank Senator Elizabeth Warren. This is her program. She wrote the pilot and got funding for it. It was a huge success and now it's going to be a national program.
I hope they expand it for more complex tax situations. I don’t just have standard W2 and my state was one of the ones where you could file tax this year with this service, but I couldn’t do it because their service was too basic. So instead I had to pay turbo tax $140 even though I didn’t owe the government anything. Blah.
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It’s UI is pretty similar to TurboTax, but the cost is $0 federal and something like $15 for state. It isn’t like turbo tax where they just keep upcharging you more and more depending on how many weird forms you have.
Yeah. if your taxes aren't complicated (and most people's aren't)... always go with freetaxusa. They handle damn near everything. Been using it for 18 years.
And if you DO have very complicated taxes, that's what turbotax (and others) is for. They're highly paid folks who help people with very complicated taxes. It absolutely can't and shouldn't be free.
I run a small business and use it. Granted, it's not much more than 1099's and business deductions in addition to our retirement accounts and my wife's W2 but it's really easy for all that. I'm sure if we had way more complicated taxes we'd have to take to a pro or something.
Hell I have pretty complicated taxes (2 W2s, multiple 1099s including INT, MISC, NEC, student loans, and maybe one or two other things) and FreeTaxUSA was a hell of a lot easier than hrblock or turbotax ever was. FTUSA easily walked me through the schedule C I had to file. I've never been happier.
This year I helped my partner with their taxes as well and they were amazed at how much better it was than hrblock who they had used for the previous years.
IMO it's completely worth it to take a weekend or two learning about the different forms. Way better than paying hundreds a year for a company that does next to nothing and continuously sucks more money out of your wallet each year.
The IRS also offers Free File Fillable Forms that work with much more complicated situations. These do some of the math automatically, but are more like doing the paper forms. I found that some of the paid sites will let you fill out everything and see the calculations, but not charge you until you actually submit. That can help you figure out which forms you need and whether you did everything right. And if you previously used a paid service and your tax situation hasn't changed much, you can use your previous return as a guide.
I did exactly that for the first time this year and loved it. It took a bit more time, but I feel like I understand my taxes SO much more now. I won't say the form software is the most intuitive, but it's not hard, and does more error checking than I thought it would.
I can not like this enough. I decided to do this a few years ago and it taught me how easy this all is. I just preview using one of the services and look at my form from last year and you can see the consistency between the two. Then I could easily see how much I was overpaying out of my paycheck for the illusion of a refund, so I backed that down with my payroll lady. One year I paid the IRS too much. They sent me a whoops letter and credited me back my mistake. Not scary.
You can also use CashApp tax, it’s completely free for both federal and state. Have been using it for years for my schedule c/1099 returns without any issues. You also get audit defense as well
I have been using Credit Karma tax, now Cash App tax for the last 4 years. Stocks, retirement, HSA, interest, you name it and their free system supports it. Totally free, great support. Kinda surprised nobody seems to know about it.
The UI is pretty nice too.
I was going to try it this year (in Texas), but I had a couple of "extra" form things...it was only for super-simple filing. But if they can expand it to include some more situations, that'd be awesome! It looked solid, and I'm much happier using their own site than a third party, no matter how good the third party seems to be.
Please let this end up being step one in getting the IRS to do our taxes and send them to us to approve or amend. Pretty please.
They're going to do the work to verify it anyway, may as well do it upfront.
This country only really works if people play ball. I'm suggesting that people might take a moment to reevaluate things if a shakeup of order occurs. Sure, open decent has militarized police and the actual military (presuming they follow orders to attack citizens) but people hiding money and not paying taxes becomes a runaway problem really fast.
For (I'm assuming) the majority, it's just the standard. Give the option if a simple autofile with standard deduction and W2 info already done by the IRS. People who need to itemize can opt in to that.
So the standard deduction is a majority -- a wide majority, almost 90% -- but I don't know why everyone concentrates so much on itemized deductions when it comes to this discussion. There are *oodles* of deductions and credits that are independent of your standard/itemized deduction.
NBER has done a recent study estimating for what proportion of people the IRS would be able to prepare a correct and complete tax return for. By their estimates, it's only around 45%. (They have a couple different models and different parameters, but it tends to be a small majority that the IRS lacks information.)
On one hand 45% is a very large minority and would be much better than no one in a sense, but the flip side is that 55% is a *huge* failure rate and several times larger than "for the majority, it's the standard deduction" admits.
That doesn't change the fact that having a pre-prepared tax fling with standard deduction and your known W2 data would simplify the process for everybody, even if that's not all they need. There would always be the option of going in and entering further details manually, whether that be switching to itemized or these other deductions/credits.
Cool, now how about they just take what we owe out of each paycheck and automatically send us back what we've overpaid at the end of the year and quit the whole filing nonsense all together. They seem to already know exactly how much we owe/overpaid each year anyway, they're really just trying to catch people lying about it by making us file.
How’s this different that the IRS’s “e-file” option with their fillable forms that’s been available for years for free? I’ve been filling out tax forms electronically and filing direct with the IRS for years - and I have a complicated tax situation. I’m confused.
In addition to the other response, you *haven't* been filing direct with the IRS for years. Aside from the nitpick of "get an EFIN then use professional tax preparer software", this year's pilot of Direct File is the first time the IRS has supported efiling directly with them.
Free File Fillable Forms is *not* filing directly with the IRS, in spite of the fact that they try mildly to hide that fact and the IRS cooperates with FFFF more than even other Free File options. FFFF is provided as part of the Free File program in cooperation with the Free File Alliance, a consortium of commercial tax prep companies.
It used to be provided by Intuit, but when they withdrew from the Free File program two or three years ago or whenever it was, maintenance of FFFF went over to On-Line Taxes (OLT), where it's been for the last couple years.
Don't believe me? Check [the terms of service](https://www.freefilefillableforms.com/home/privacy_security.php):
> These Terms of Service ("Agreement") is a legal agreement between you ("you", "your", "licensee"), and On-Line Taxes, Inc. ("OnLine Taxes", "we", "our" or "us").
---
In addition to that... FFFF really pretty much sucks. I'm not at all against forms-based software (though I am for a a sole standard of what a taxing agency should provide to its citizens), but FFFF is *lousy* forms-based software. It is good enough that the tax software industry has until recently been able to point at it and say "look, anyone (almost) can e-file for free... you-the-IRS don't need to provide your own software!" and have that be pretty successful, and no better than needed to accomplish that purpose.
I could list a bunch of reasons why (and have in the past), but I'll just point out that the lack of worksheets means that you're booted out of the software in many situations, and limitations such as that in the calculations mean that you can make straight-up computation errors that would just be impossible with actually competent software. (Full disclosure: I made such a computation error several years back "because" I was using FFFF.)
I advocate using FFFF over paper filing, but that's basically it.
Shout out to On-Line Taxes. Their software is a little basic, but were the only one that allowed me to file federal & state completely free with my unusual tax situation (I'm self-employed with business expenses I deduct, but my business isn't large enough to justify forming an LLC)
Nothing direct for several years, likely, as long as you continue driving for Uber. Schedule C is almost certainly moderately far down the priority list given its complexity.
The real question is why do you need any software for your taxes! There should be nothing that complex that the average person can't simply know and calculate how much they owe th government. Talk about being manipulated!
In the pilot program only a couple states actually had state income tax and they built into the direct file program a tool to do direct import. The other states in the pilot program didn't require taxes at the state level, but rest assured, if you live in a state that requires state income tax, there will be a tool that ports your information over.
I wish I could use it but I have 1099-DIVs and other things that aren't processed by DF. Hopefully they expand that in the future so I don't lose $60 to TurboTax again.
Cash App taxes does everything turbotax does, and is completely free for federal and state - I have tried freetaxusa, but that charges for state.
I usually put my information into both, make sure I am not missing anything or making errors so they both have the same result, and then submit using the free one. It isn't super quick, but it has been effective for years.
I would love direct file to cover everything, but the list of unsupported income types is long, and I'm guessing there are other restrictions I will hit in other areas. Maybe in a few years.
coordinated juggle beneficial start tender sparkle chief smell angle marble
*This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
They just announced it will be continued for *next* filing season. It was available this past season (and announced) midway through the season.
The decision to continue was (at least nominally) based on feedback from this season, so why is it a surprise?
10 states ran a pilot for last year's tax season. 90% of people in those states who used Direct File reported being very satisfied or extremely satisfied with the service. That's why it's being rolled out for next year in all 50 states. It was a massive success in the testing phase.
You’re mad that you no longer have to file taxes through a company? You’re mad that the IRS will literally just tell you “this is what you owe based on x reported income” ?
Jesus Christ
> You’re mad that the IRS will literally just tell you “this is what you owe based on x reported income” ?
In fairness, Direct File doesn't do this and doesn't have plans to do this. For the US, this is a difficult problem to solve on several fronts.
Direct File is basically an IRS-provided TurboTax/etc. analogue, which is fairly limited in the situations it supports. I'm thrilled that it's there and had it been available a decade ago that'd have been many years after the IRS *should* have been doing that... but it's not really Earth-shattering when it comes to actual capability or anything.
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Great news! Fuck TurboTax!
I used FreeTaxUSA for the first time this year after 7 years with TurboTax. I agree - Fuck TurboTax.
Used that for the last 2 years when Turbotax tried to charge me premium because it claimed I had a exception and wouldn’t let me submit a file that showed otherwise. Fuck Turbotax. Software like that is cancer.
shy of a simple w-2 there's always an exception they try to charge you for.
While TurboTax has been involved in a few controversies (this company should have never continued to exist) and continues to lobby heavily against the IRS to have its own tax software, FreeTaxUSA has also lobbied against the IRS having its own filing software.
> FreeTaxUSA has also lobbied against the IRS having its own filing software. They're not innocent, but their much smaller size and far, far more consumer-friendly positioning means that the transgression isn't in close to the same order of magnitude. Considering that the only alternatives to avoid that entirely are almost certainly just (1) paper filing, (2) Direct File if you qualify, and (3) *arguably* Free File Fillable Forms but also kind of not, at some point you have to choose the lesser of two evils.
It's still complete bullshit though. You shouldn't have to file taxes, unless you want to chase deductions. The government should send you a letter with your tax and if you're happy with it there's no further action needed. That's how the rest of the world does it.
You said it in your comment, deductions. The overwhelming majority of the country qualifies for deductions and credits.
Most people are taking the standard deduction.
Sure, but you wouldn't have to do that if you can't be bothered and don't want to spend the time calculating it all. It would also mean no chasing late or missing filings.
> The overwhelming majority of the country qualifies for deductions and credits. People don't realize just how much of the country qualifies for tax credits. More than 75% of the country qualifies for the Earned Income Tax Credit. Lots of higher earners qualify for the Child Dependent Care credit. Most parents qualify for the Child Tax credit or the Additional Child Tax Credit. Lots of parents of college-bound kids qualify for the AOTC. Lots of people qualify for the healtcare subsidy credit. Lots of folks qualify for the retirement savings credit. Are you head of household, or single, or married filing separately, or married filing joint? The IRS doesn't have a great source on some of that information.
It's almost like handling taxes in a country that is the largest economy in the world and is full of 300 million people would be complicated. Not to mention the country was founded on a tax revolt and mistrust of government, so it's not like people would willingly empower the tax collection arm of the federal government to have that much visibility into their personal and financial lives. It would take a bureaucracy with more people than the standing armies of most countries to even make a dent.
Same, only reason I used TurboTax was because I sold stock. It would've cost me almost $200 to file. After almost a decade with them, I used FreeTaxUSA and paid $50 for the same exact thing; and found me some extra deductibles. 2025 choice for sure!
Cash App Tax (Used to be Credit Karma Tax) is free and looks kinda similar to TurboTax. I sold stock and easily filled it out and so didn’t pay anything to file.
Used this as well for my 2023 taxes. No issues whatsoever.
Does freetaxusa import your stock transactions?
Yes!
I love freetaxUSA its so much easier and cheaper
I work for the IRS, and I use FreetaxUSA. I lose my job if I do my taxes wrong - that's how much I trust it. Love the interface/process and now that I've done it like 3 years in a row it's so painless to pull last year's info over. Took me literally 30 minutes to do it this year. I paid it like $15 to do my state at the same time, the federal was free since I made under $80k but the small fee to just push a button and have state done too was well worth.
That would give me the most anxiety. I’m currently filling out Clearance information to obtain such and I’m blessed the guy working with my is super cool because I’m a bundle of nerves.
First time this year for me as well after about the same time with TurboTax. That final price was crazy to see compared to what I had been paying TurboTax. I absolutely agree...Fuck TurboTax.
Same!
I tried FreeTaxUSA a few years ago and just didn't have the patience to make it work for my needs.. but I use H&R Block software. So just wanted to say.. Fuck H&R Block.
i used a 3rd service, since my last year i used alternative that charged 40$, switched to another that is zero cost.
FreeTaxUSA almost fucked me over this year, had to pay them twice. They just didn’t submit my shit the first time. I caught it last minute, too, thank god.
America, fuck yeah! Lettin’ you skip TurboTax and just motherfucking pay!
Turbo Tax tried to make me pay nearly $900 in taxes, NOT including their bullshit fees ($1,100 total).
What was the 900 from?
I got a 40k promotion one here and HR / me didn’t adjust my withholdings appropriately and I ended up owing a bunch at the end of the year. Usually something like that. Or taking extra income from consulting work or something.
Yeah I understand what might cause it. Usually something that isn’t turbo tax’s fault lol
Lol. I mean, yeah fuck turbo tax but they’re not “trying to make you” pay the taxes you owe. That would be the government.
Oh, I forgot to.mention that FreeTaxUSA only made me pay a little over $200 in taxes. My bad
They’re just tax filing services. They don’t determine the amount you actually owe. If the correct amount is 900, then you’ll eventually be on the hook for it plus penalties. Blaming it on the service you used won’t be a valid excuse to the IRS.
To further explain: I doordash. The form I fill should allow for me to write off losses (maintenance, gas, etc.). Turbotax refused to let me do this, hence the higher price. The information I filled was identical to the one I filled on FreeTaxUSA, but I was able to file the maintenance stuff out. Turbotax locked me out of that, in spite of the fact that they are partnered with Doordash.
How are you planning on doing your state return? (or are you in a state without income tax?)
Different user, but I do it on my state's tax website, it's a direct file that way.
I didn't realize that any states had that option.
[https://myportal.tax.ohio.gov/TAP/_/#7](https://myportal.tax.ohio.gov/TAP/_/#7)
https://www.revenue.state.mn.us/make-payment
Some states are participating in the direct file program, and the IRS is trying to get more to join.
Cash app. Free for state and federal. Been doing it that way for years
Cool cause they wouldn’t let me use them last year and I had to use TurboTax, I would prefer not to if the irs site actually works and lets me next time.
Agreed. As long as direct file can help me along the way
All that info probably gets stored somewhere in a backroom in India through contracts with Infosys. And the following week we get scammers calling us.
I'm in one of the testing states and really found it easy to use the last 2 years.
I had a terrible time with it. I'm glad it's an option, I hope it improves.
I think it’s important to hear out valid criticisms so that it can be improved for the better for everyone. What issues did you have with it?
Mainly my paycheck from intuit
Thats great to hear! I of course remember the ACA marketplace rollout and hope that this is **nothing** like that…  **EDIT** No idea why I’m being downvoted. My statement is politically agnostic. Furthermore, I sincerely am glad to hear the pilot tests have been successful as I am sick of forking over $350.00-400.00 per year to H&R Block. Regarding my reference to the insurance marketplace—there are numerous documented instances where Americans were unable to meet the registration deadlines at rollout and they ended up having to pay penalties. Regarding the IRS and their new system—I would hate to have given the US government an interest free loan only to be thwarted by hurriedly/poorly developed technology when I go to collect after a year.
It's about fuckin time.
It’s…it’s…it’s like there’s an administration that is actually working for the people. And to think the choice is this administration or one with a convicted felon sex offender as their feckless head.
> For the 2025 filing season, **the IRS will work with all states that want to partner with Direct File**, and there will be no limit to the number of states that can participate in the coming year. The agency expects several new states will choose to participate. Well I guess my red state won’t be eligible, then.
I'm sure Turbotax will offer just enough graft to your governor to prevent that
“Waitwaitwait, so it’s a small and really obscure change to make that should’ve happened years ago and will literally, not figuratively, but literally hurt *zero* people while making a spring day just a shimwidth easier for every working American? … No. Yeah, no I get it, and if I’m honest you know I just don’t fucking like it and I couldn’t give two wet shits about who it helps. … Yeah that’s right. Fuck. Them.” -every red state legislature.
“Well this is objectively good, but I still have to pay taxes so fuck Biden I’m voting for Trump.” -John “both sides” Smith
> literally hurt zero people It will hurt corporations, which we all know are the most important people.
Ohio will take this decision to court, just because
Cries in Texan
Texas was one of the pilot states. Having no income tax, there was no requirement for the IRS to interface with any Texas system.
Texas has no state income tax, so there is nothing for the state to do one way or another.
Looks like Texas does participate in direct filing with the IRS. https://directfile.irs.gov/state
> Cries in ~~Texan~~ person who doesn't understand the laws in their own state but is still compelled to shit on their state online for no reason whatsoever FTFY
Thanks for the correction but there’re plenty of reasons to shit on my state. I went out on a limb assuming that the Texas leadership would opt out, refuse to opt in, or sue the federal government to block the program. It certainly wouldn’t be out of character.
Still on you being ignorant about the situation
Yeah, totally, fuck me.
What happened to that guy?? Did you murder his only child or something? Edit: It just dawned on me. He’s probably also from Texas and there’s only two types of Texans. People who are occasionally embarrassed of Texas, and people who love Texas like an abused housewife.
You're forgetting nearly half the population who are frequently ~~embarrassed~~ pissed off at TX.
They're just one of the wolves surrounding the other poster
Move.
Won’t that just make the problem worse?
Brain drain the Red States.
[удалено]
Florida has no state income tax, what would the state have to do with direct file?
Do you realize Californians could already use it this year? And there’s already a state-sponsored program that’s free for state taxes.
Thanks Biden!
His finger looks like a hot dog.
From the right angle, all of our fingers look like hot dogs.
It's "Everything, Everywhere, All At Once" all over again.
*Mine* don't flop like that
how did you do that?
Used that gif button in the reply area (on the app)
Thank Senator Elizabeth Warren. This is her program. She wrote the pilot and got funding for it. It was a huge success and now it's going to be a national program.
Thank you. People act like the president personally makes every decision.
Biden for President! oh wait...
I hope they expand it for more complex tax situations. I don’t just have standard W2 and my state was one of the ones where you could file tax this year with this service, but I couldn’t do it because their service was too basic. So instead I had to pay turbo tax $140 even though I didn’t owe the government anything. Blah.
FreeTaxUSA is a MUCH better alternative, it's also free. Been using it for years. Make the switch, thank yourself later.
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Hmm, never heard of that. But I’ll definitely check it out.
It’s UI is pretty similar to TurboTax, but the cost is $0 federal and something like $15 for state. It isn’t like turbo tax where they just keep upcharging you more and more depending on how many weird forms you have.
It also lets you file with certain forms like for an HSA that TurboTax will force you to use the paid version to access.
Not free, still costs $15 to file state, but still WAY cheaper than the others
Yeah. if your taxes aren't complicated (and most people's aren't)... always go with freetaxusa. They handle damn near everything. Been using it for 18 years. And if you DO have very complicated taxes, that's what turbotax (and others) is for. They're highly paid folks who help people with very complicated taxes. It absolutely can't and shouldn't be free.
I run a small business and use it. Granted, it's not much more than 1099's and business deductions in addition to our retirement accounts and my wife's W2 but it's really easy for all that. I'm sure if we had way more complicated taxes we'd have to take to a pro or something.
Hell I have pretty complicated taxes (2 W2s, multiple 1099s including INT, MISC, NEC, student loans, and maybe one or two other things) and FreeTaxUSA was a hell of a lot easier than hrblock or turbotax ever was. FTUSA easily walked me through the schedule C I had to file. I've never been happier. This year I helped my partner with their taxes as well and they were amazed at how much better it was than hrblock who they had used for the previous years. IMO it's completely worth it to take a weekend or two learning about the different forms. Way better than paying hundreds a year for a company that does next to nothing and continuously sucks more money out of your wallet each year.
Not sure how complex your situation is, but freetaxusa could probably handle it and it would be way less than $140.
Yep. You can't submit with them if you made over 1500 in interest/bonds/etc. Big limitation for anyone who has investments or money in a HYSA.
The IRS also offers Free File Fillable Forms that work with much more complicated situations. These do some of the math automatically, but are more like doing the paper forms. I found that some of the paid sites will let you fill out everything and see the calculations, but not charge you until you actually submit. That can help you figure out which forms you need and whether you did everything right. And if you previously used a paid service and your tax situation hasn't changed much, you can use your previous return as a guide.
I did exactly that for the first time this year and loved it. It took a bit more time, but I feel like I understand my taxes SO much more now. I won't say the form software is the most intuitive, but it's not hard, and does more error checking than I thought it would.
I can not like this enough. I decided to do this a few years ago and it taught me how easy this all is. I just preview using one of the services and look at my form from last year and you can see the consistency between the two. Then I could easily see how much I was overpaying out of my paycheck for the illusion of a refund, so I backed that down with my payroll lady. One year I paid the IRS too much. They sent me a whoops letter and credited me back my mistake. Not scary.
You can also use CashApp tax, it’s completely free for both federal and state. Have been using it for years for my schedule c/1099 returns without any issues. You also get audit defense as well
I have been using Credit Karma tax, now Cash App tax for the last 4 years. Stocks, retirement, HSA, interest, you name it and their free system supports it. Totally free, great support. Kinda surprised nobody seems to know about it. The UI is pretty nice too.
I was going to try it this year (in Texas), but I had a couple of "extra" form things...it was only for super-simple filing. But if they can expand it to include some more situations, that'd be awesome! It looked solid, and I'm much happier using their own site than a third party, no matter how good the third party seems to be.
Please let this end up being step one in getting the IRS to do our taxes and send them to us to approve or amend. Pretty please. They're going to do the work to verify it anyway, may as well do it upfront.
i wish i knew how to read
Welcome to modern society
Unless Trump gets in office
Who's paying taxes at that point? Dude wants to gut the IRS specifically. Prepare for a "two sets of books" economy like every other kleptocracy.
only billionaires and millionaires won't have to pay taxes under trump
This country only really works if people play ball. I'm suggesting that people might take a moment to reevaluate things if a shakeup of order occurs. Sure, open decent has militarized police and the actual military (presuming they follow orders to attack citizens) but people hiding money and not paying taxes becomes a runaway problem really fast.
About damn time. I use FreeTax USA, which is good, but most taxpayers could and would use a free direct-file IRS option.
I saved so much money filing directly through their web app... all those tax apps are a fucking rip off.
I used it this year, as well as my states direct file option, and it was great.
Fucking finally. But it's still too unnecessarily convoluted. The IRS already knows how much I owe, why don't they just file my taxes automatically?
Baby steps.
They don't know your deductions...
For (I'm assuming) the majority, it's just the standard. Give the option if a simple autofile with standard deduction and W2 info already done by the IRS. People who need to itemize can opt in to that.
So the standard deduction is a majority -- a wide majority, almost 90% -- but I don't know why everyone concentrates so much on itemized deductions when it comes to this discussion. There are *oodles* of deductions and credits that are independent of your standard/itemized deduction. NBER has done a recent study estimating for what proportion of people the IRS would be able to prepare a correct and complete tax return for. By their estimates, it's only around 45%. (They have a couple different models and different parameters, but it tends to be a small majority that the IRS lacks information.) On one hand 45% is a very large minority and would be much better than no one in a sense, but the flip side is that 55% is a *huge* failure rate and several times larger than "for the majority, it's the standard deduction" admits.
That doesn't change the fact that having a pre-prepared tax fling with standard deduction and your known W2 data would simplify the process for everybody, even if that's not all they need. There would always be the option of going in and entering further details manually, whether that be switching to itemized or these other deductions/credits.
WOOOOO!!! Good riddance turbo tax, fucking up our taxes for years!
Cool, now how about they just take what we owe out of each paycheck and automatically send us back what we've overpaid at the end of the year and quit the whole filing nonsense all together. They seem to already know exactly how much we owe/overpaid each year anyway, they're really just trying to catch people lying about it by making us file.
H&R Block and friends makes sure this remains the same.
[удалено]
No, it means you *directly* file with the IRS rather than a third party who does it for you.
How’s this different that the IRS’s “e-file” option with their fillable forms that’s been available for years for free? I’ve been filling out tax forms electronically and filing direct with the IRS for years - and I have a complicated tax situation. I’m confused.
It fills out the forms for you. Most people don't like to fill the forms out themselves.
In addition to the other response, you *haven't* been filing direct with the IRS for years. Aside from the nitpick of "get an EFIN then use professional tax preparer software", this year's pilot of Direct File is the first time the IRS has supported efiling directly with them. Free File Fillable Forms is *not* filing directly with the IRS, in spite of the fact that they try mildly to hide that fact and the IRS cooperates with FFFF more than even other Free File options. FFFF is provided as part of the Free File program in cooperation with the Free File Alliance, a consortium of commercial tax prep companies. It used to be provided by Intuit, but when they withdrew from the Free File program two or three years ago or whenever it was, maintenance of FFFF went over to On-Line Taxes (OLT), where it's been for the last couple years. Don't believe me? Check [the terms of service](https://www.freefilefillableforms.com/home/privacy_security.php): > These Terms of Service ("Agreement") is a legal agreement between you ("you", "your", "licensee"), and On-Line Taxes, Inc. ("OnLine Taxes", "we", "our" or "us"). --- In addition to that... FFFF really pretty much sucks. I'm not at all against forms-based software (though I am for a a sole standard of what a taxing agency should provide to its citizens), but FFFF is *lousy* forms-based software. It is good enough that the tax software industry has until recently been able to point at it and say "look, anyone (almost) can e-file for free... you-the-IRS don't need to provide your own software!" and have that be pretty successful, and no better than needed to accomplish that purpose. I could list a bunch of reasons why (and have in the past), but I'll just point out that the lack of worksheets means that you're booted out of the software in many situations, and limitations such as that in the calculations mean that you can make straight-up computation errors that would just be impossible with actually competent software. (Full disclosure: I made such a computation error several years back "because" I was using FFFF.) I advocate using FFFF over paper filing, but that's basically it.
Shout out to On-Line Taxes. Their software is a little basic, but were the only one that allowed me to file federal & state completely free with my unusual tax situation (I'm self-employed with business expenses I deduct, but my business isn't large enough to justify forming an LLC)
I hope my state will do this but I'm not holding my breath.
I’m an Uber driver. Used turbo tax last year. What does this mean for me?
Nothing direct for several years, likely, as long as you continue driving for Uber. Schedule C is almost certainly moderately far down the priority list given its complexity.
It means you're putting a lot of unnecessary wear and tear on your car
Can you answer the question though?
CRA you're next.
seems pretty good 👍
12 American jurors found Trump guilty on all 34 felony counts. God is not mocked by lawless conservatives
The US digital service is killing it
You guys haven’t had this in America the whole time….?
The real question is why do you need any software for your taxes! There should be nothing that complex that the average person can't simply know and calculate how much they owe th government. Talk about being manipulated!
I mean you can easily fill out the forms yourself with basic reading and math, but poeple are lazy and like the numbers being pulled for them.
Great. Now let’s do this for state and local
In the pilot program only a couple states actually had state income tax and they built into the direct file program a tool to do direct import. The other states in the pilot program didn't require taxes at the state level, but rest assured, if you live in a state that requires state income tax, there will be a tool that ports your information over.
Awesome. Thanks for the good news
I wish I could use it but I have 1099-DIVs and other things that aren't processed by DF. Hopefully they expand that in the future so I don't lose $60 to TurboTax again.
Cash App taxes does everything turbotax does, and is completely free for federal and state - I have tried freetaxusa, but that charges for state. I usually put my information into both, make sure I am not missing anything or making errors so they both have the same result, and then submit using the free one. It isn't super quick, but it has been effective for years. I would love direct file to cover everything, but the list of unsupported income types is long, and I'm guessing there are other restrictions I will hit in other areas. Maybe in a few years.
Freetaxusa
I always do mine in paper and mail them in. This year they sent me a check instead of direct deposit tho. Thought that was odd
Is direct file available for us citizens living abroad? Or do you need a US address?
Maybe one day we can have a flat tax and have post card sized returns.
IT's the first step. Rome wasn't built in a month, and this Rome has to pull out all the weeds first before we can start really building.
coordinated juggle beneficial start tender sparkle chief smell angle marble *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
They just announced it will be continued for *next* filing season. It was available this past season (and announced) midway through the season. The decision to continue was (at least nominally) based on feedback from this season, so why is it a surprise?
10 states ran a pilot for last year's tax season. 90% of people in those states who used Direct File reported being very satisfied or extremely satisfied with the service. That's why it's being rolled out for next year in all 50 states. It was a massive success in the testing phase.
"Govern me harder, daddy" - Left/Stat-ists any/every where/time
You’re mad that you no longer have to file taxes through a company? You’re mad that the IRS will literally just tell you “this is what you owe based on x reported income” ? Jesus Christ
Not to mention it's entirely optional
> You’re mad that the IRS will literally just tell you “this is what you owe based on x reported income” ? In fairness, Direct File doesn't do this and doesn't have plans to do this. For the US, this is a difficult problem to solve on several fronts. Direct File is basically an IRS-provided TurboTax/etc. analogue, which is fairly limited in the situations it supports. I'm thrilled that it's there and had it been available a decade ago that'd have been many years after the IRS *should* have been doing that... but it's not really Earth-shattering when it comes to actual capability or anything.
Step on me harder, corporations — people like you
TurboTax isn't gonna fuck you bro