I’d already decided that I was going to try to e-file this year, and now the IRS has proclaimed (HA!) that any who has an adjusted gross income of less than 50K can e-file for free online, I went looking at various sites. Some look ok, some look bad, some look pretty good - it’s a crap shoot though, imho. Has anyone out there had any experience with any of the sites? Which are good, which are bad? The first one I checked out had very little on-line help and didn’t offer much in the way of explanation. The second one seemed much better, more helpful and more explanations. I’ve always done my own taxes - I don’t itemize and it really doesn’t make much sense for me to pay a preparer $150 (yes, that’s what Jackson Hewitt quoted to me!) to do them for me, although it seems like they keep making the tax laws/code more byzantine every year, or else I’m just losing patience with trying to figure it all out.
Anyways, I’m interested in knowing what others thoughts are about on-line filing, etc. Thanks!
I like Turbotax myself. I don’t know if they are participating in the <$50k thing, but I do know that they are happy to deduct any fees from your return, which is as good as free in my book.
However, I STRONGLY recommend printing a copy or 10 of your return and keeping it somewhere. They say they keep yours on file, but I’ve had trouble pulling up my 2002 and 2004 returns on their site.
I have used TurboTax, through www.taxfreedom.com, for the past 4 years or so. It’s easy and fast and simple as heck. I’m not sure what their minimum requirements are – I don’t make all that much – but it’s worth taking a look at. I did mine in about an hour on Monday.
Thanks for the replies, Inkleberry and AntaresJB. The site that I liked was the TaxAct one; I -think- that TurboTax had a lower threshold for free returns. I should just bite the bullet and purchase the software myself, I guess. Where they try to get your money is for your state returns; fortunately, my state (Maryland) lets you file for free online so I wasn’t taken in by that “incentive.”
I did my taxes last night, with TurboTax for the first time. Even though I had alot of medical expenses and some mortgage insurance, TT didn’t help me get higher than the standard deduction so I was kinda pissed at myself for buying it.
TT wanted me to pay $24.95 to file online and I said no f’n way. I printed out my forms from there and used a free site (I made around $30k) randomly chosen off the IRS website. I chose www.free1040taxreturn.com I will know in 7-10 days if my return was filed correctly
I looked at a couple of the sites on the IRS page. Then I ended up going with TurboTax online because I’ve used the desktop version for the last 5 years and they haven’t screwed me yet. We don’t qualify for the free filing, but I still wanted to file electronically because I’d like my return soon.
See, I don’t trust anybody to do my taxes anyway, so I did them myself first, using the IRS page. Then I tried citizentax.com from the IRS page–they got my taxes wrong and would have screwed me out of $300 on my refund.
Once bitten, twice shy; I decided not to try every online provider and just went to TurboTax, did my taxes in a few minutes, and they came out right as always. I think the free e-filing threshold for TurboTax is under $29K–I bought the basic service for $9.95 (plus applicable tax) and e-filing was free.
Moral of the story is: If you’re going to use the free software, you might want to double check the numbers they come up with.
It’s not that hard for people whose income comes primarily from wages/salary.
I even have to do Scedule C-EZ and Schedule SE since my part-time job is classified as independent contracting.
I’ve filed tax returns since 1967( the first few years simply to claim a refund for most, if not all, money withheld since I was aminor living at home at the time);
never been audited.
My Dad had nothing but wage income–and later nothing but pension and bank account interest-- but always took his taxes to a preparer.
I tried showing him each year that I could do it for him for free and not get him audited, but he had too strong a fear of the IRS. His excuse was, “I’m sure miy taxes are way more complicated than yours.” They weren’t.
If you read the OP, this is not about wanting someone else to do my taxes, it’s about e-filing. The IRS is supposedly trying to encourage more people to e-file and it supposedly gets the refund to you more quickly. I checked out several of the sites listed on the IRS web page - the first site gave me a bigger refund, but it wasn’t very helpful and didn’t explain a tax credit that I wanted to claim (payment for my son’s college tuition), and I think gave me the wrong credit. The second site explained it better and the credit I got on that site was smaller, making the difference between the refund due me about $800 less than that on the first site. Now that scared me. Fortunately, the tax couldn’t be sent because the IRS has not released the tuition credit form yet. So, you do have to be cautious.
The e-file sites use software to do the taxes; I don’t see anything wrong with using tax software either. As long as it incorporates all the tax law changes, that is!
If the government really, truly wants to encourage us to file electronically, why don’t they let us do it directly instead of pushing paid services? Mr. Legend and I do our own taxes, and if someone’s going to charge us money to file them electronically, well, hell, I’ll just get out the envelope and stamp. Perhaps we’re not typical taxpayers, but if someone who’s willing and able to fill out a form online (as we have done for our state taxes every year since the state made it an option) ends up filing the old, inefficient way, which is more expensive for the IRS, mightn’t it be worth their while to make a direct online option available?
It does! I e-file every year and with direct deposit, my refund usually shows up in my account within 8 - 10 days. I usually use H&R Block’s TaxCut, which is free if you use the link here from the IRS free file site. Took me about 15 minutes, and cost me nothing.
I agree with this fully. Most years past, I’ve always been able to efile for free, so I did. It looks like I made more than $50k this year, so unless someone can find a free efile service for AGI > $50k, I’ll be pulling out the paper forms for the first time in 6 or 7 years. Getting my refund early (actually, I don’t know that I’ll even get much of one this year) isn’t worth $25 to me.
They say H&R Block’s TurboTax is free for anyone, regardless of AGI, if you take your refund in the form of a pre-paid debit card. IOW, they’ll mail you a Visa/MasterCard pre-charged with the amount of your refund. Yes, cash is nice, but you can use the car for groceries, gas, whatever.
