I know a number of people who are now using https://www.freetaxusa.com/ to file their taxes for free, but I've been hesitant to. Does anyone know offhand if they're actually trustworthy?
The name might seem a little sketchy, but it’s a legit service. I don’t know about “free” - I’ve always ended up paying to file at least one of state or federal, I don’t recall, but not pricy.
(Edit - looking closer, I’ve been using them since 2007. Wow, time flies. Great service, no complaints.)
They don’t spam my email and phone unlike Intuit (even after I deleted my account)
I believe they may even pay these companies to offer the service.
Free Tax USA doesn't have an income limit, and may be the only one, so I've used them for at least 5 years. They charge $10 for state filing, so I use CalFile instead.
My tax situation is pretty simple and they've filled my needs. The only issue I've had is with exempting Treasury bills from state tax but I don't file state with them anyway so maybe I missed something.
Anything to unseat Intuit. That said, a direct file option would be best, but I don't trust myself to fill the forms correctly.
> The information given may be used to improve and develop and train our artificial intelligence and other machine learning models.
> When using digital media (PDF, photo, etc.) imports and/or uploads on FreeTaxUSA.com, any information submitted by the customer through this service may be processed using automated (AI) and/or manual (human) methods. The information given may be used to improve and develop and train our artificial intelligence and other machine learning models. We implement robust safeguards in our use of AI to maintain security and compliance, ensuring sensitive information is protected and handled responsibly. Any sensitive information is anonymized or excluded from use. We do not share customer data or trained AI models with any third party. When leveraging cloud infrastructure, all data is securely managed and maintained under TaxHawk’s exclusive control.
In other words, if you don't use features like PDF, photo upload, there's no AI use.
I prep about a dozen returns every year with it. Id say it's the easiest and most straight forward e-file I've ever used. A simple return should take maybe 10 minutes. They don't upsell very hard either which is super nice.
They also keep your previous years return for free which greatly speeds up filing. Most services charge for that.