Anybody take the free internet tax services?

fuzzybuddy

fuzzybuddy

SF VIP
Location
The Sticks, Northeast PA.
Yup! I'm a retired nurse. So it's not like I have Norwegian off shore oil leases or anything.
I honestly don't understand why the government doesn't have its own free IRS site, where we can do our taxes.
 

I tried it for the first time this week, and had a lot of trouble with it. Probably my fault for not spending enough time to figure it out. I already had things filled out on paper.

Every time I logged out, it wouldn't recognize my password to log back in, so I had to reset it. I got form 1040 to fill out fine, and it looked encouraging, but could never bring up Schedule B (interest). Will try it next year. I saves your information until Oct 20th.
 
dpwspringer said:
I didn't know that. Thanks for the info. Have you used it?
Click to expand...

No, I haven't tried the IRS site. I did file, for free, using TaxAct a couple of times, years ago. A few years ago, I tried the H&R Block CD, and liked that, so I have stayed with H&R. It costs about $50 a year to get their current CD, and do the numbers, then file online....both Federal and State...but the convenience and accuracy of that program is worth it, IMO. This past year, I filed right at the end of Jan., and had both the Federal and State refunds within a couple of weeks.
 
A lot of free services are for very basic returns. Some can't even handle stock transactions or won't do the worksheets. AARP and other's offer free services but it's just another individual and/or data base that gets your personal information.
 
Maybe I'm wrong but I thought the free IRS site has you leave their site and a box pops up saying "You are leaving the IRS site" and then you have a choice of a few Tax Prep sites that will help you. That's what I've gone for the last 4 or 5 years and I choose EZTax, which is free if you are a senior and, I think make less than $60,000 a year. Some of them have restrictions, like someone mentioned Schedule B. Maybe it wasn't available on whatever site were using. Also I believe it's not a one size fits all. There are different Tax prep services available for different situations and maybe it even goes by what state you are in. Just go into the IRS site, click on that online link and read all the info. EZTAX is the only company I can vouch for and they've been great to us. I not only do our taxes on it I've done a couple other people's taxes too in years past.
 

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