Free tax filing on the IRS website

[hoyaguru]

If you go to irs.gov, they have a button on the home page for "Free File", but when you start going through the process, you end up on another company website. Has anyone used any of these companies to file for free? If it's free, why buy Turbo Tax?

 

[iamwiz82]

Originally posted by: hoyaguru
If you go to irs.gov, they have a button on the home page for "Free File", but when you start going through the process, you end up on another company website. Has anyone used any of these companies to file for free? If it's free, why buy Turbo Tax?

Because the free ones are limited, usually there is an AGI maximum.

 

[Juddog]

Originally posted by: hoyaguru
If you go to irs.gov, they have a button on the home page for "Free File", but when you start going through the process, you end up on another company website. Has anyone used any of these companies to file for free? If it's free, why buy Turbo Tax?

I used the free forms last year. As long as you make less than $50k you can use it for free. Some of the sites even offer free State taxes as well. I did mine last year, worked fine, got my refund

 

[Soundmanred]

The AGI is fairly high at $52,000.

 

[ShotgunSteven]

Not all of the sites have the same requirements, so be careful to read the details. Better yet, use the site selector at IRS.Gov, that's how I found the one I used.

 

[Accipiter22]

www.statetaxfreedom.com they handle federal and state and it's free

 

[ShotgunSteven]

One thing I forgot to mention, I had to link to the site through the IRS site for it to be free, at least for the sites I have used. If you just go to the site instead of using the link at IRS.Gov, a lot of them will charge you.

 

[trigun500]

I am an accounting major and FYI: those things are easy to use, but they can just as easily screw you over and when you get audited; you have no backup but a program. Just be careful.

 

[mugs]

Originally posted by: iamwiz82

Originally posted by: hoyaguru
If you go to irs.gov, they have a button on the home page for "Free File", but when you start going through the process, you end up on another company website. Has anyone used any of these companies to file for free? If it's free, why buy Turbo Tax?

Because the free ones are limited, usually there is an AGI maximum.

Yeah, I don't think there were any that I was eligible for last year. So I bought Tax Cut for something like $15 after rebates and I got a ton of other software free. Then this year they sent me another free copy of Tax Cut.

 

[FoBoT]

the IRS doesn't write tax software, so they partner with commercial companies that do, to offer these types of free services to targeted groups of peoples

 

[cubby1223]

There was one year you could file the 1040EZ straight through IRS's website for free, which was great. But the next year it was discontinued, probably because there's profit to be had by private business.

But I don't know, trusting my tax information to some random website isn't something I want to do. I've filled them by hand for the last 7 or 8 years.