What website do you guys use for your taxes?

[Xist]

I have always used TurboTax, but when I tried to free file, it would not accept my 1099-Misc, nor could I find any option to upgrade. I found instructions, but all of them were invalid.

H & R Block free isn't. H & R Block Basic is basic and free, but lack options that I have always taken for granted, like upgrading.

It is weird. Maybe I would have gone with H & R Block or TurboTax, but I was not willing to call.

I tried all of the sites on a "Free file" list. Tax Act has a free version, but the list said that you did not pay until you filed, and linked to the pay version.

[Stubby79]

Not the kind of info I would be willing to post through a website... (I download software, so it locally and submit it securely. Or, if I feel paranoid, print it and submit it manually)

[Ecky]

I used Taxact for a few years, but I dunno if it's free with a 1099. This year I filed with CreditKarma's online service, because their math worked out a bit more favorably. The interface is also a little more user friendly, though arguably not "better".

[redpoint5]

Freetaxusa

It's probably Russian servers, but so far my identity hasn't been stolen. Been using it for years now. Federal is free, but they might charge to file State taxes.

[Fat Charlie]

We pay something for Turbo Tax each year.

[Xist]

I asked on Facebook and a friend linked IRS.gov and said it was free.

I am sure people do fill out the forms themselves, but why?

I stuck with TurboTax last year when I needed to upgrade to the most expensive package and still owed more than $3,000. Perhaps I should have tried one or two other sites, but I did not think about it. When I accepted my last job I calculated how much I thought I would make the rest of the year, how much I would pay in taxes, and estimated that I would about break even, not needing to pay taxes when I filed. Unfortunately, somehow I was horribly wrong. I sure wish I could figure out how!

I am not sure how to search for free file providers that include the 1099-Misc, but FreeTaxUSA does. They charge $13 for state. However, I did not feel that it was as complete as TaxAct or TaxSlayer. Only TaxAct told me that $2,500 is the maximum deduction for student loans (I paid over $3,500). 1040now.net did not skip anything, so that was tedious. DIY Tax (freetax.com) seemed to have all of the features that I expected except retirement and health insurance deductions on my W-2. I talked to someone named Xiaojun who seemed to try to tell me to not worry about it, they took care of it. When it checked for errors it found four and six warnings. TurboTax always reviewed sections in question. DIY Tax told me where they were, but not in a useful way. I was not able to resolve all of them.

Credit Karma says they have a free tax service and maybe it is, but you cannot file your taxes through them without signing up for credit monitoring, and when it tried to scan my return from last year, it messed up all of my personal information, and I needed to go back and redo it, but I felt the credits and deductions were more straightforward than other sites. However, everything is on one screen, and you need to scroll past everything you completed to move on.

H & R Block Basic, DIY Tax, and Credit Karma said that I owed about twice as much as TaxAct and TaxSlayer. FreeTaxUSA and 1040now.net are closer to the low end than the higher end. TaxAct kept having "pro-tips," which I wish I could have turned off, having done my taxes before.

I wanted to print (to PDF) each return to try to figure out the differences, but I needed to pay first. I did not feel that it made sense to hire the team that told me what I wanted to hear and then get audited.

[redpoint5]

Your wall of text triggers my hatred for the corrupt tax code and unnecessary waste of human life. We need to replace federal income tax with a federal sales tax. There are ways to make it progressive, such as first $500/mo housing expenses exempt, or certain staple foods are exempt.

[Xist]

Esmarttax.com, eztaxreturn.com, 1040.com, and fileyourtaxes.com also do not include the 1099-misc. I only tried services listed at https://apps.irs.gov/app/freeFile/jsp/index.jsp, so hopefully they are legitimate.

Wall of text? I reviewed six different providers in thirty-one lines.

[jjackstone]

Get all my information and forms from IRS. I've always done my own taxes and still send in paper versions. That way no information is on any website anywhere unless the IRS itself gets hacked or they sell my info. Am I paranoid. Not really. Do I trust any of the tax preparation companies not to divulge some amount of my info. Not a bit. JJ

[redpoint5]

Originally Posted by Xist

Wall of text? I reviewed six different providers in thirty-one lines.

Not an indictment of your helpful reviews, rather an indictment that the reviews and conversation is an unnecessary waste caused by stupid tax laws that should get public and political attention.

Instead our political discourse revolves around proving Trump had unsavory interactions with unsavory people when we already knew that about his character, and somehow didn't care enough to elect someone else.

As always, I'm attempting to discuss the "why" of the topic rather than just the "how", and it seemed you had already covered the "how" of the thread.