Own a house and some stocks. Nothing remarkable.
I’ve used TurboTax for years but it is now so expensive for it’s services and last year they printed up the wrong forms and got us into some trouble with the state. What tax software is considered the best for basic preparation?
I have a friend who uses Credit Karma and she is quite happy with it. I’m strictly a TurboTax guy myself. I think HR Block has a web tool, too, but I can’t vouch for it.
I’d suggest OLT.com. It’s free, with the full version only $7.95 (plus $7.95 for your state return). State return in $9.95 if you use the free IRS option.
It gives you access to all forms. I have some Schedule C income, which makes Turbotax far too expensive (the version with a Schedule C is more than I earned). I’ve used it the past few years.
I use either TT or HRBlock. I figure spending less than a hundred bucks is worth it for the peace of mind that I didn’t miss anything… and maybe get a deduction I would’ve missed.
The hot contender on the Personal Finance subreddit is FreeTaxUsa.com. One tip is to run your numbers through TurboTax and FreeTaxUsa and if they’re the same or close, file with FreeTax.
I’m in the same boat, own a house and a handful of stocks. I used to use Turbo Tax until they started charging extra just for the stocks. I switched over to H&R Block and have used it for the last few years. I’ve not had any problems with it, and the state usually comes with it, though they charge you to file the state. I just print out the forms and do them on line or mail them in.
I’ve usually just gotten it from Amazon for $30-40.
I’ve used the HR Block web portal for several years now. About 4 or 5 years ago it was pretty clumsy in that it didn’t prompt you well for uncommon deductions/credits or state-specific things. It wouldn’t tell you that you live in a sales tax state, for example, and you had to dig a bit and have the foreknowledge that you should add those items.
The recent few years usability have improved a lot. I’m pretty simple, though. No home business, no investment income sources, so your-mileage-may-vary.
TurboTax is owned by Intuit and they suck. I use the H&R Block free file, they’re not very ethical either on the lobbying front but they aren’t as bait and switchy as TurboTax (if you use them, always access through going to irs.gov first). At the time I started using them, they were better UI than TT or TaxAct.
Otherwise, Credit Karma or FreeTaxUSA are generally respected and problem free.
I’ve used TaxAct for my free filing the last 3 years now. The first 2 years were great, but this most recent filing they somehow failed to ask basic questions about the 3 tax forms I had in my possession. I had to go back through their process multiple times until I got it all right and got the correct amount returned.
For instance, they somehow assumed that my son, who is a 100% dependent, did not qualify me for the EIC / Additional Child Tax credit. Why? Because on the form it said he lived with me 0 months out of 12. Did they ask me to fill this out? No, they did not. Best I can tell, they just stuck in the default value of 0 after copying the previous year’s data to this year. This is a critically bad issue for any software claiming to find you the best tax return.
Similarly, I could not get them to ask me for my 1098-T form (listing scholarships and grants). I had to go back and try this about 5 or 6 times until I finally got to the form.
I might switch to a different software next year.
A couple years ago, I did an informal head-to-head challenge of Turbo Tax and Credit Karma Tax. Not a completely simple return, with employee stock purchase, dividends, savings interest, mortgage interest, property tax, charitable donations, and vehicle license fees, and they came out to the same amount. Not close. Equal.
Why spend anything on Turbo Tax when the same results can be had for free?
I have very simple needs, and Credit Karma is solid. It’s truly free, unlike most other online tax prep apps which have a free tier but either require payment to complete filing or constantly try to upsell you on more services. I know somebody who once didn’t report a certain (small but nonzero) income source because they’d prepared their entire return in one app only to discover adding that income would require an upcharge. Not a great look.
My only complain with Credit Karma is that, last year, some of the fields were labelled strangely and their state return forms were less user-friendly than the federal. I’m hoping this year is a bit more polished.
I mean why shouldn’t they though? Some are more or less user-friendly, or some don’t ask the proper questions about sources of income. But those are all pretty standard itemizations.
Anything that professionals like me use.
It’s very strange seeing these conversations among people who prepare their own taxes, given that by definition the people I have the most contact with professionally get their tax returns prepared by professionals, and it leads me to think practically everyone does until I see threads like this. While certainly a lot of our clients have good reasons to come to us, another lot of them don’t have any reason other than inertia and laziness.
I just started volunteering at the local AARP Tax Preparation service. This service is FREE for both preparation and filing, federal and state. At our location, we have no age limit and no income limit. We don’t handle certain complicated tax situations, but wages, dividends, interest, retirement income, property tax, and other “usual” situations are acceptable.
I recommend checking out your local area for this type of service.
J.
One other tax issue I’ve had with Credit Karma: although they have an amended return feature, they allow only a limited window of time to use it. I couldn’t get an official answer from them, but based on my experience it appears to be about six months from tax day. I tried to use it in early November and got a “Credit Karma Tax is now closed” message.
https://www.freefilefillableforms.com/#/fd
Basically pen and paper but you can type everything in instead.
I spent a few hours trying to figure out why, what should have been a moderately sized (state) refund was a really high balance due. I finally figured out that I entered my W-2 wrong and left the state tax withheld box empty. I’m surprised it didn’t pick up on that.
IIRC, last year I started with credit karma, but ultimately ended up filing with taxact. Sometimes I’ll use two programs and make sure the numbers match. I think I ended up filing the federal return for free (with taxact).
My accountant!
I was a loyal TaxAct user for many years, until I had an experience similar to yours. On my state return, TA should have copied the contents of one box into another box, but it didn’t. I didn’t figure out the error until after I had filed, and had to file an amended return to get my money back. That, plus the upselling and escalating prices, soured me on TaxAct.