I haven’t used TurboTax recently, but I just received a check from my state’s government saying that they’ve settled with Intuit over charging customers tax return services that should have been free.
This angers me greatly at how scummy TurboTax and Intuit have become over the years. For alternatives, I’ve been using FreeTaxUSA but I’m sure there are others that people can recommend.
If all goes well, the IRS should be able to do a simple tax prep service for most Americans for free next year 🤞🤞
It’s really freaking stupid that Intuit has commandeered the tax prep market for almost 3 decades now
FreeTaxUSA for me as well. Very easy to use and it’s free for federal. Hopefully they don’t end up the same way eventually.
I’ve used them for many years. Like you said, free for federal and I think $15 if you want them to file state/local which I am happy to pay. I know I can do it free online but it’s a cheap convenience.
Even completely ignoring this settlement, you shouldn’t be using them. They lobby the government to make taxes more difficult, thus funneling people toward them since they simplify the process. They make money off of making your life harder.
Second this. Also link to relevant Cory Doctorow article for those interested: https://pluralistic.net/2023/05/17/free-as-in-freefile/
Personally, last year my taxes were somewhat complex, but I filed my taxes using the fillable electronic forms alone anyways; IRS actually nicely corrected mistakes I made on the tax form and sent me back a check… For most ppl you can probably just go to a random free provider as suggested by the IRS.
No need to use TurboTax for anything unless tax situation is super complex & you can’t/don’t want to read the IRS instructions
Good on your state for pushing back
