FreeTaxUSA
freetaxusa.com
freetaxusa.com
The mistake was user error in entering a backdoor Roth IRA contribution. Freetaxusa makes it easy to enter correctly, and turbotax makes it easy to screw up.
This caused my taxable income to be increased by the amount of the conversion. Not good. My biggest mistake was not being more diligent about looking over form 1040. I feel like it should have been a pretty obvious error.
But in this specific case of "minor error [...] leads to significant money losing tax implications" - it is really an error that would be possible in absolutely any "fill in your tax info situation", since the mistake they made was writing the wrong number into a "taxable income" field. That mistake can still be made even in a country whose tax system is as simple as "everyone pays X% of their income as tax, and fills in a one-field form where the only question is "what was your income for the year?". (But yeah, a simpler system would mean less opportunity for making simple mistakes, and easier to check if any have been made, for sure.)
But then some years ago, someone recommended FreeTaxUSA, and it's great. UI/UX is fine, federal filing is free, and state filing is only $15.
I've been using FreeTaxUSA for a few years now. 10/10 would recommend.
https://www.ftb.ca.gov/file/ways-to-file/online/calfile/inde...
That number is $12,950, FWIW.
This seems much like an "illusion of choice" situation. Credit Karma and Turbo Tax are both owned by Intuit. (Not that you were fooled by the illusion, just that it stuck out to me.)
Source: my company got acquired by intu and their new CEO was very and frequently open about their past bad behavior and how it was no longer relevant in today's market.
Sounds like:
Not “open about how the past bad behavior was bad and regretted and not how business should proceed going forwards.”
But “open about how bad behavior was useful until it succeeded utterly and thus other bad behavior could be useful in future and would be welcomed.”
Sounds like the Intuit we all know!
That makes so little sense to me
What I said was that they stopped lobbying congress and that the market can't be grown.
I said nothing about letting it "evaporate and disappear".
The lobbying was the only thing preventing that, so the stopping of lobbying seems like it is entirely giving up on the market.
Again, you keep saying "allow", like they have a choice. They kinda don't. Congress got really pissed at them as did the public.
> The lobbying was the only thing preventing that, so the stopping of lobbying seems like it is entirely giving up on the market.
Honestly, I would say it's not the only thing preventing it. And they're not giving up on the market.
Their website is not reassuring to a web/database developer like myself who is aware of some of the loopholes, threats (insiders, developers) and protection options (separating db admin from masking admin, etc). They do/claim the very basics and that's about it.
I do appreciate their claim to not resell access to mydata at all. I have no confidence with Intuit when I have repeatedly evaluated their language/claims on that topic.
Super simple and quick.
This is why you can’t take reviews of contentious software at face value. People are so sick of TurboTax (I am too) and their lobbying shenanigans that they will give glowing reviews to deficient competitors.
I’ll spend 30 minutes, $15 dollars, and my office’s mailroom to send one single 9x13 envelope once a year. Don’t let perfect be the enemy of good.
You do need to be able to provide substantiated figures if you are audited. Which is easy, you print out the paperwork from your exchange...
Not exactly worth paying for that convenience. You can still eFile too.
Feel free to ask me questions, and I'll pass them onto her!
Also, FreeTaxUSA is not only great for users, but they are fantastic to employees. My relative got to go on a cruise this summer, and she claims their pay has more than kept up with inflation.
I used TT for years and even as a student it was always a hassle and difficult to just use the free service without ending up on a screen that made me pay or redo everything.
Edit: actually, a question. Can we add better 2FA? I know it is a once a year thing, but I'd prefer something better than email or phone number.
And I've passed on the thanks!
It might be too late to change the name, but the name is misleading. As cheap as it is, it is not completely free. I understand needing to make money, but the first thought I had when I saw that it was not in fact free, was, what else are they misleading about.
Please please please support expats. I've never lived in the US, and although I don't technically pay taxes, filling is so expensive that that in of itself is a tax for me.
I have asked about expats before (I thought about living abroad). She says it is on the roadmap, but it isn't very lucrative, so it is low priority. They do implement new stuff every year, but they only have so much time to fo so.
You can see more detail here: https://www.freetaxusa.com/self-employed .
For my part, I have an LLC that is not an S Corp. The reason is that you have to pay yourself a wage, and programmer wages are R&D. I think the rules were changed recently such that R&D can't be fully expensed.
But talk to a professional.
is this rare/uncommon/common?
If they have a weakness, it is their marketing. It's uniquely incompetent.
And they specifically state small business support here: https://www.freetaxusa.com/pricing
As far as filing and forms, FreeTaxUSA supports EVERYTHING for federal taxes, for free. The $8 deluxe upgrade just gives you live chat and priority support. Pro gives you personal phone support to a tax pro.
I found this out one year because they don't fully support Form 8283, which I needed in order to handle a deduction of a cryptocurrency donation to charity.
But apart from that, they've been great. And your main point is correct in that they don't upcharge for any of their supported forms.
The free version gives you everything else. For small/individual biz, you can file Schedule C, K-1, etc with free version.
In a situation where there's some complex tax issue, absolutely, go with the professional, but for most people, the CPA is mainly there to provide peace of mind.
Also, if you make a good faith effort to pay your taxes correctly, the potential legal trouble for getting it wrong is pretty minimal. You'll need to pay the correct amount plus interest and penalties, but "interest and penalties" are pretty light (effectively 14% simple interest on the amount of the underpayment). And since the IRS doesn't usually take more than a couple of months to say, "hey, you screwed up," interest and penalties usually add up to like 3% of your underpayment.
Worst $500 spent in my life.
I just searched the site of the person I used (it's a private family company, not one of those cubicles set up in Walmart) and there's no mention of "CPA" anywhere on their site.
He decided it was time to retire, recommended another accounting firm in my area, and they charged me $750, and all it was was an Intuit frontend where I had to fill everything out myself. I did that one year, then I switched to FreeTaxUSA and was super happy with it.
I probably would go back to an individual CPA if I could find one like the guy I had, but I've been burned by the first CPA and this most recent one. 1/3 isn't a good prior.
For federal income tax, there is also this spreadsheet that is very handy:
If it makes you feel better you can use a CPA once, and then mimic what they did in the years later. The best service they can do is recommend things that may minimize tax or reduce complexity. Note that minimizing tax may not be the best goal, however, especially with investments.
Or you can pay a CPA to do your taxes to feel like a "big boy".
Different story if you're self-employed, own a business, or are involved in various types of investments.
For whatever reason, most US tax filing systems refuse to allow non-American addresses.
FreeTax is the Kagi of tax prep.
IRS to begin trial of its own free tax-filing system - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38892044 - Jan 2024 (323 comments)
13 States join the IRS direct-file test after tax prep firms dropped the ball - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37937894 - Oct 2023 (189 comments)
Free IRS-run tax filing pilot to be available in 13 states - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37920633 - Oct 2023 (329 comments)
Realizing how much I've been ripped off now I think this is the year I'm finally going to switch.
Many, many people no longer need to claim the mortgage deduction and so no longer need to itemize.
e.g. part of me believes that due to the lobbying etc, returns that come through turbotax have a lower rate of auditing or sth.
I think the wording on some of the questions it asks you are slightly different, so it may get a bit of a different answer on some things. Would have to compare to the IRS documents itself to see which is "right".
Now it's working in Safari again.
Seems performant and usable, can't really say TurboTax did much more except be flashy. And now that they closed the sharing loophole, I guess it's time to try a switch.
I might even file state with these guys, usually I would print and mail.
Does anyone else find this process a little fun? Finding all the opportunities for deductions?
It helps to love financials which I do. I have always done my own taxes just because I want to be knowledgeable about it. Some folks truly hate it.
Free Federal, $15 state, that's it.
But you might as well just use FTU.