this post was submitted on 02 Aug 2023
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Yes. It's terrible for 99% of people. 1% can do the easy return.
Freefilefillableforms.com
Free for everyone, has links to all the necessary forms and literature, etc. Linked by the IRS on their how to file webpage.
You do NOT have to pay a service, despite tax preparation services acting like you have to.
It definitely involves a lot of reading and work, though.
As always, the tradeoff that money buys, as in almost every case, is time.
Once you do it the first time though it's pretty easy to do it the next time.
Kind of, there are free services and the IRS is working on their free filing website/software. However, the easiest product to use TurboTax is focused on upselling. I believe it's free for basic taxes but the minute you need to add something like contractor income it's $120.
Yeah, they also try to upsell you on having a real person look over your taxes and lobby against any form of free tax software.
I hope they get the ease of use right. Part of the reason I still use TurboTax is because it asks questions and walks me through the process. Even though my tax situation is a little complicated I can figure it out with minimal googling.
I've used FreeTaxUSA for the last 5 years and it's very good with very minimal upselling (and they make it very clear when payment is optional).