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Comment by stevenpetryk | Hacker News Reader

FreeTaxUSA only cost me like… $20? in California this year and had very little upsells. Highly recommend!

I also found that FreeTaxUSA helped me understand my taxes better. A few areas where TurboTax performed some calculation automatically, FreeTaxUSA made me aware that I had eg. maxed out a particular deduction, in a way that helped me change my behavior accordingly.

Just so that you are aware, TaxHawk (which owns and operates FreeTaxUSA) may choose to sell your information in the event of a "business transition" (bankruptcy, merger, etc)

From https://www.freetaxusa.com/privacy

>> Business transitions

> In the event TaxHawk evaluates or conducts a business transition whether as a going concern or as part of bankruptcy, liquidation, or similar proceeding, such as a merger, being acquired by another company, or selling a portion of its assets, the personal information of users will, in most instances, be part of the assets transferred. Users will be notified, via email and/or through a prominent notice on the FreeTaxUSA.com website, 30 days prior to a change of ownership or control of their personal information.

That sounds like a disclaimer for something that is true for every company, no?

But unlike every other company, this company has your most sensitive tax information. For some that's fine, but others might not like that.

Wouldn’t Intuit do the same?

Yes,

https://www.intuit.com/privacy/statement/

>> How we share your personal information

> For mergers and acquisitions. If we are involved with a merger, asset sale, financing, liquidation, bankruptcy, or the acquisition of all or part of our business to another company, we may share your personal information with that company and its advisors before and after the transaction date.

Yes, but the IRS wouldn't. Which is just one of the benefits of having a direct file program.

IANAL, but my understanding is that you are incorrect. EULAs can be written such that there are irrevocable privacy rights even in the event of corporate actions. I think 23 & me is going through something like that now.

I'm confident some of the privacy-protecting apps I use have irrevocable EULAs. But I've never seen one from a major corporation.

From their open letter:

> Any buyer of 23andMe will be required to comply with applicable law with respect to the treatment of customer data.

https://blog.23andme.com/articles/open-letter

So the buyer is bound by the same terms but they absolutely do get the data ("be part of the assets transferred" as per FreeTaxUSA's terms that we are discussing).

Do you have another reference in mind?

I was actually fairly impressed with CashApp taxes. It seemed to work fine, it handled my State and Federal taxes just fine. Granted, I don't think my taxes are terribly complicated, but I think they're comparable to a vast number of users.

CashApp taxes is free and had zero upsell. I don't know what information they are farming out of this and if I did it might end up disturbing me, but at least it's free and was easy to use.

Cash app is the best bar none. The only problem is part year state income taxes which I have to fill by hand.

I got the opportunity to learn about something like married, filing separately, on a single return or something because of course oomur tax policy is like a jury rigged bug fix on top of a bug fix.

Another +1 for FreeTaxUSA. This is my second year using it, and I think they do a great job. It’s more “hands on”, but I think they offer a strong value.

They don't give you fake loading screens and that's all I want.

same. +1 here. 3 years happy customer. Tried paper, turbotax, and a few others. Staying with freetaxUSA

That's a strange name for something that cost money.

I paid nothing because I live in Nevada. They charge for state income taxes, but federal taxes are free.

Yes, one might argue it's a little misleading, but it comes across as significantly more genuine and less scammy than TurboTax. The federal filing is completely free, no matter which forms you have, and you just pay $15 per state. They also have the standard support upsells, but they don't push them crazy hard (I think it's one prompt between the federal and state sections).

I've used them for the past several years, never had any issues. Paid for audit defense one year when my return was especially complex (luckily haven't needed it yet).

You only pay if your state charges to e-file, which many do.

They have up selling services like a prepaid debit card and whatnot, but all that is optional.

I do not think they're operating "at-cost" -- making a profit off of state taxes is a reasonable business model. I also doubt that California charges to e-file: https://www.ftb.ca.gov/file/ways-to-file/online/calfile/inde...

I'm really happy to use FreeTaxUsa and only pay $20 for my income tax though, because using TurboTax with contractor income it was $120 or more. I got multiple family members to switch to FreeTaxUsa.

It works pretty well, but it took me a while to give it a go, because the name sounds like the scammiest thing ever.

Federal (USA) taxes are always free with them no matter what complications you have. They only charge for state filing or for live support. Seems fine to me to call it that.

I've used it the last couple years and I've been happy with it.

This is what my wife and I used this year and it was a great experience!

Same, been using it for years. $15 for state tax, free if your state has no income tax

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