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this post was submitted on 08 Sep 2023
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Fuck Intuit and H&R Block, all my homies use FreeTaxUSA.
A (now ex) coworker turned me on to FreeTaxUSA like a decade ago and I've been using it every year since then. It's easy, free (for federal) and just works. I usually pay the $15 for them to file state/school since I'm a lazy fuck but really, my time is worth something after all. I've had zero complaints with them.
FWIW, CashApp Taxes (formerly Credit Karma Taxes) is free for state and federal.
Formerly Credit Karma taxes because Credit Karma was bought by Intuit, believe it or not, and they had to spin off the tax prep part.
Huh I did not know this. CK was my backup to FT USA but that is indeed some sneaky shit. I'm scared now for FT USA - PLEASE DO NOT SELL OUT.
I used Credit Karma taxes for several years and have actually used the Cash app Taxes for the last two years since the switch and while it's not quite as good as it was under the CK umbrella it's still been mostly okay for me.
It also works smooth with state taxes! I used to have to manually fill out a pdf and attach for the state portion of the return with other software.
My wife and I have slightly complex taxes. We pay a local independent tax preparer to do it for us. I’d much rather my money go to a hard working neighbor than a scam-baiting company like intuit.
They're cheap, straightforward, and not Intuit. Enough said.
FTUSA is amazing. It's either free or super cheap, depending on your state and income. I wish I knew about them sooner. I did my taxes on my phone at work during a slow shift.
I have used FreeTaxUSA. One year FreeTaxUSA was giving me a pretty low return number, so I went with TurboTax instead. I agree FreeTaxUSA is cheaper, but make sure you cross compare to ensure you aren’t leaving money on the table.
At this point though, my taxes are so complicated, I just hire a professional.
It is absolutely wild that it's so bad over there, that you're gushing over a service that should just be provided by the government in the first place (and is, in most developed countries)
For context, the reason I'm hating on Intuit and H&R Block and encouraging people to use FreeTaxUSA is because the first two are the main culprits behind the extensive lobbying that has led to the US government continuing to require people to file their own taxes rather than modernizing and making this process free and easy. My "gushing" is in pursuit of changing the broken system you're pointing out.
Sorry, didn't mean it to come across as insulting, just that it's a weird situation you even need to be praising one of the others. I hope it gets better
No worries. You're right that it's absurd that we need to fight so much for our government to protect us from blatant corporate for-profit schemes. There was a time when even the US government at least did us the honor of pretending to not take bribes like this. The Intuit tax return money machine is such an obviously fixable problem. All my 20-something friends in the US know that this problem only exists because lobbying. It's disgusting to watch elected representatives become so comfortable with their positions that they feel safe enacting policies that hurt their constituents like this.
FreeTaxUSA also tried to charge me for state after saying it was free though.
I guess I could have printed out the forms I had just filled out and mailed them, but that's not exactly what was advertised. It's "free tax filing" not "free forms." I paid it because it was cheap, but then they kept kicking both my federal and state back to me with error messages saying they were not "accepted" by the IRS.
Cash app had no issues with the exact same information being "accepted." It just worked. And it was actually free.
I've never seen it say state filing is free. It's like $15 and its a deal.
FreeTaxUSA was very clear that state isn't free. But if your state doesn't suck they'll make it easy to do online on your state site anyway.
Also it's like $15 for state. I may have just happily paid that price for their service.