Doesn’t the US already have some kind of messed up system where if you want to file your taxes digitally you have to go through a commercial provider who’ll do their darndest best to upsell you from something that should be a free service?
Kind of, there are free services and the IRS is working on their free filing website/software. However, the easiest product to use TurboTax is focused on upselling. I believe it’s free for basic taxes but the minute you need to add something like contractor income it’s $120.
Doesn’t the US already have some kind of messed up system where if you want to file your taxes digitally you have to go through a commercial provider who’ll do their darndest best to upsell you from something that should be a free service?
Freefilefillableforms.com
Free for everyone, has links to all the necessary forms and literature, etc. Linked by the IRS on their how to file webpage.
You do NOT have to pay a service, despite tax preparation services acting like you have to.
It definitely involves a lot of reading and work, though.
As always, the tradeoff that money buys, as in almost every case, is time.
Once you do it the first time though it’s pretty easy to do it the next time.
Yes. It’s terrible for 99% of people. 1% can do the easy return.
Kind of, there are free services and the IRS is working on their free filing website/software. However, the easiest product to use TurboTax is focused on upselling. I believe it’s free for basic taxes but the minute you need to add something like contractor income it’s $120.
I’ve used FreeTaxUSA for the last 5 years and it’s very good with very minimal upselling (and they make it very clear when payment is optional).