Item: FreeTaxUSA
Rating: 8.8
Author: Jonathan Kerns

FreeTaxUSA Review 2020

Founded in 2001, FreeTaxUSA is one of the best and most affordable tax software offerings in the current market. As you may have guessed from their name, what makes this particular online software stand out from the crowd is the fact that they offer a truly free service for filing your federal tax return. And when they say free, they really do mean it. There are no restrictions nor any hidden charges, and the best part is that you get support for a vast majority of IRS forms and schedules. More than their affordable prices, their software is also fairly easy to use and they also pack in some really useful features – even on their free edition! FreeTaxUSA is certainly great for those looking for a simple and low cost solution to their tax needs, but for those looking for more in the way of features, they also have a little something for you. Keep on reading to find out more!

Free for a Great Deal of Returns

The great thing about FreeTaxUSA’s returns is that they are free for a vast array of federal returns types. This includes selling, buying, or owning a home; education, college, and teacher credits; birth of a child; child tax credits; marriage & divorce; capital gains; office & business expenses; rental income; retirement and pensions, and many, many more.

Pricing & Features

Much like most tax preparation softwares in the industry, FreetaxUSA provides a very easy to use process by way of the tried-and-tested step-by-step interview method for doing your taxes, while also filling out the forms you need automatically. More than that, they also provide a bevy of instructions to point you in the right direction. As far as tax services that are offered for free, this one in particular in right up there with some of the best in terms of ease of use.

Itemized and standard deductions, for instance, are built into their website, and answering a series of simple questions will help you find those deductions quite easily. You can also import tax data from previous years, which makes things a whole lot easier. In addition, they also provide a refund calculator that will automatically update after you enter your tax information, as well as built-in error checking that immediately notifies you of any possible anomalies in your entries, which is great for nipping most problems in the bud.

While all of that is truly notable, the main draw about FreeTaxUSA’s tax software is that it offers a completely free, yet fully capable edition. And if you are looking for a bit more features, they also provide a very affordable Deluxe edition. Here is a brief rundown of each plan:

Free Edition: Preparing, printing and e-filing your federal tax return is 100% free. It supports a wide variety of forms and schedules, and it also provides an online backup of completed returns, tax filing for some complex tax situations, a free federal tax extensions service, and more. State filing, meanwhile, will cost you $12.95. Additionally, amended tax returns and priority customer support will cost you $9.95 and $5.95, respectively.
Deluxe Edition: This edition gives you all of the benefits of the Free Edition plus the inclusion of amended tax returns, priority customer support, and audit assist at no cost. This edition goes for a very reasonable $5.95 for federal, and $12.95 for state.

Customer Support

As for customer support options, FreeTaxUSA offers email, web form and postal mail as the main channels of communication between customer and their support team. They also provide a context-sensitive help feature that you can utilize wherever you are in your tax return. On the other hand, their resource page, while containing some pretty helpful information, is not so user-friendly. Scouring their Q&A resource page via the search bar – which is the only way, mind you — is a bit of a pain because it doesn’t recognize variations of certain words or natural language. Going through each and every question, page per page, is also very unintuitive.

What's the Verdict on FreeTaxUSA?

Worth It, Some Issues