General

I like H&R Block, I use the web version. In the past, I've used Tax Slayer and TurboTax. H&R Block and TurboTax seem to be running an early-filer sale, so I know what I'm doing this weekend.

My dad likes TurboTax software, but I don't trust them after they said I had to pay the AMT - preposterous. I switched to H&R Block and they didn't give me that crap.

I go to an actual accountant for ours. Turbo Tax was going to leave $1500 on the table the last time I tried to use it. H&R Block was more expensive than the small business doing the same work. I'd rather support a local business than a chain to be honest.

Taxact here although I have been using them for the last decade.

Freetaxusa is pretty solid.

There used to be studies every year by places like Consumer Reports where the exact same information for a wide range of incomes was given to each tax preparation service and no two of the results matched. Often there were wide ranges of results in the amount of tax owed. The conclusion from these studies is that the US tax code is too complicated for even those trained to understand it. Therefore, picking a service to prepare your taxes is a crap shoot.

Keep in mind, that without lobbying from HR Block and TurboTax, we wouldn't be in this mess. The government gets all the information it needs to simply calculate your tax and simply send you a bill.

I don't recall why I picked TaxAct several years ago, but I've stayed with them simply because I have them store my returns. I can have them fill in information from my previous return.

We used H&R Block once (in-person no less) when we had a complicated year and it was a complete waste of time. I forget what we paid for their service but they really didn't make the tiniest effort to do anything outside of asking us the same info a web form would. Their fee basically turned our return into nothing.

We've used accountants before and if you have any odd things going on, losses, big purchases/sales, unemployment, etc. I would absolutely recommend that route. Whenever we have some complexity we hit up a human that year. They always know the special things that can help offset bad numbers, at least a little bit.

Otherwise we do TurboTax which I think it's pretty dang good. For simple filing it's mostly painless, inexpensive, and quick.

I do a local accountant as well. They saved me a ton of money once on my taxes and so I've been going to them ever since.

Another vote for Free Tax USA.

If you don't have anything complex or complicated, own no property, and are basically just dealing with standard income tax forms and 1098's from stuff like school, is there any need to do something other than an online service where you plug in the numbers?

I’ve been told by an attorney friend to use a service with an audit support option. Don’t know if she’s correct but swears the IRS won’t touch that?

I've used TurboTax for 25+ years.
Certainly, it's not perfect, but I'm so used to it now.
I'll never escape from the TurboTax hole I'm in.
Quicken is kind of similar.

@Feeb Audit rates are super low across the board. Returns with max earned income tax credits or high income returns get a little more attention, but even those are pretty low audit rates. Right now most of the attention is probably going after PPP and ERC fraud. The budget is out there to hire more agents but good luck getting anyone remotely qualified for the position in the middle of an accountant crunch.

bill wrote:

Same…

Well, 10years. Just on auto pilot at that point. Never considered anything else.

Full audit rates are low, but the IRS will reject or ask for clarification on a return they believe has errors. My daughter's fiance has started a few small businesses that made little or no reportable income. He handles his own taxes and the IRS has questioned his returns almost every year.

About 3 years after I got married, I got a letter from the IRS stating there was a discrepancy between the amount of income reported on my Federal Return and my State Return. If I couldn't explain the difference, I was going to have to pay the tax difference, interest on the difference, and a penalty. I had filed jointly and explained that the difference was that my wife had worked in a different state - so I had filed two separate state returns. The crazy thing was that none of the figures shown on the IRS letter matched any of the figures on my returns.

I started using H&R Block after TurboTax starting charging for the standard filing. Even had to file an amended return last year, no problems (other than the IRS taking almost 7 months to pay what they owed me). I'll use them again as soon as my tax return comes in (my work sends them out on the last possible day).

ProPublica reported that “TurboTax uses deceptive design and misleading advertising to trick lower-income Americans into paying to file their taxes, even though they are eligible to do it for free. There’s a new wrinkle: It turns out, Intuit, the maker of TurboTax, is deliberately hiding the truly free edition — TurboTax Free File — from Google Search. Intuit has done that by adding code on its site telling Google and other search engines not to list TurboTax Free File in search results.” It was further reported, “[i]n exchange for the IRS promising not to create its own free, online filing tool, Intuit, H&R Block and other companies signed a deal to offer Free File options to lower-income Americans. The fact that TurboTax Free File is effectively hidden from Google could contribute to the low rate of use. While 70% of taxpayers are eligible for Free File options from TurboTax and other tax software products, just 3% of eligible taxpayers or fewer use them each year.”

loztdogs wrote:

17 years for me. Also never considered anything else, but maybe I should?

Tony wrote:

I don't understand this. I remember way back when I first started using TurboTax, they charged a small fee to do the actual file, but it's not been that way for many years now (at least 10, I would guess). They try to get you to upgrade to pricier versions along the way, but when you get to the end, filing is always free.

I used turbo tax again this year and the fees are getting quite high for the OTC product. I wouldn’t recommend using it unless you have a difficult tax situation you’re comfortable with handling yourself or you’re expecting a decent return. I think it was around 140$ plus cost of software for federal and state e file with audit defense this year.

Still missing a document I will report my results using 3 services. I have stocks and a rental property and small business income though.