I've only been using this for the last couple of days, and there may be a big gotcha up ahead, but so far I REALLY like this tax prep site. I know there was tax software discussion up here a couple of weeks ago, but I can't find it.
I've used Tax Act for more than a decade, probably almost two decades if you count paper filing with its Parsons Software predecessor. Used Tax Slayer for a couple of years in the early 2000's, but Tax Act seemed worth the few bucks extra. In the last couple of years Tax Act's pricing took off to be only a few bucks less than Turbo Tax or Block.
Last year I was looking forward to Credit Karma's free tax site, but it was totally a work in progress. Had a box to enter rental property information, but it didn't work--couldn't click on it. It did work for my girl friend's very simple return. Apparently they've gone backwards this year because she was stopped from entering a number of 1099-R's. When she contacted them, she was told to just forget about entering them unless money was withheld and she'd be getting a refund on them. Also, the Obama care "I have insurance" dialogue didn't work. So... for the time being, forget about the freebie from Credit Karma (I like the overall site, but they bought a tax product that needs a ton of work and is apparently getting worse).
Anyway... I stumbled across FreeTax USA after seeing an initial positive review in PCMag. We got all her information into the site in one day (still haven't filed), and I was so impressed I started entry on my much more complex filing. I have rental properties which I'm depreciating, and also part of a race horse. Everything so far is going extremely well. I don't need all of the long dialogues which TaxAct developed when it decided it had to go head to head with the big two.
This is sort of like my last try with TaxSlayer but a bit cleaner and a bit cheaper. I'm not done with my tax yet, and there might be a gotcha ahead but so far this is as fast and painless as tax software can be.
Freetaxusa.com. Fed is free, they charge $12.95 for state returns and another $6.99 for the deluxe version with more hand holding. There's another site called TaxHawk.com which I understand is the same product. Apparently they charge two bucks extra for the state return and with that name, they could always start charging for the Fed return, so why mess with a good thing?
My returns are a work in progress, and I was impressed with Credit Karma's product last year for the first day or so of inputting so this might still bite me, but I thought I'd get the word out in case someone else out there has been procrastinating and disturbed about Tax Act's recent price pops.
I've used Tax Act for more than a decade, probably almost two decades if you count paper filing with its Parsons Software predecessor. Used Tax Slayer for a couple of years in the early 2000's, but Tax Act seemed worth the few bucks extra. In the last couple of years Tax Act's pricing took off to be only a few bucks less than Turbo Tax or Block.
Last year I was looking forward to Credit Karma's free tax site, but it was totally a work in progress. Had a box to enter rental property information, but it didn't work--couldn't click on it. It did work for my girl friend's very simple return. Apparently they've gone backwards this year because she was stopped from entering a number of 1099-R's. When she contacted them, she was told to just forget about entering them unless money was withheld and she'd be getting a refund on them. Also, the Obama care "I have insurance" dialogue didn't work. So... for the time being, forget about the freebie from Credit Karma (I like the overall site, but they bought a tax product that needs a ton of work and is apparently getting worse).
Anyway... I stumbled across FreeTax USA after seeing an initial positive review in PCMag. We got all her information into the site in one day (still haven't filed), and I was so impressed I started entry on my much more complex filing. I have rental properties which I'm depreciating, and also part of a race horse. Everything so far is going extremely well. I don't need all of the long dialogues which TaxAct developed when it decided it had to go head to head with the big two.
This is sort of like my last try with TaxSlayer but a bit cleaner and a bit cheaper. I'm not done with my tax yet, and there might be a gotcha ahead but so far this is as fast and painless as tax software can be.
Freetaxusa.com. Fed is free, they charge $12.95 for state returns and another $6.99 for the deluxe version with more hand holding. There's another site called TaxHawk.com which I understand is the same product. Apparently they charge two bucks extra for the state return and with that name, they could always start charging for the Fed return, so why mess with a good thing?
My returns are a work in progress, and I was impressed with Credit Karma's product last year for the first day or so of inputting so this might still bite me, but I thought I'd get the word out in case someone else out there has been procrastinating and disturbed about Tax Act's recent price pops.
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