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FreeTaxUSA

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5.1

Overall Score

Author: Kaitlyn Short

LAST UPDATED: April 26th, 2024

FreeTaxUSA has been in business since 2001, giving it several years of experience in the tax preparation industry. The company states it has helped file over 43 million tax returns with the IRS. FreeTaxUSA specializes in simple free federal returns, but the company also has other great options for a more complex tax situation and a paid option if you need to file a state tax return.

FreeTaxUSA's most significant perk is that it has great price options for both federal and state taxes. The company offers smaller benefits that help a customer's process. For example, it offers suggested deductions for standard and itemized deductions. To do this, you answer simple questions with FreeTaxUSA to automatically find new deductions. The company also provides the following securities: TRUSTe, SecurityMetrics, Norton, and SSL.

Read on for more information about the company, or scroll down to read verified FreeTaxUSA reviews.

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The Good

  • Federal Price
  • State Price
  • Features
  • Supported Forms
  • Income Disclosure

Federal Price

FreeTaxUSA's Federal Edition is completely free of charge. With this product, people can easily file taxes directly with the IRS. What's also nice about this plan is that it comes with the fastest refund when people go through a free e-file and direct deposit.

No matter how challenging or complicated your federal return may be, it is completely free, and the company promises that it will be free regardless of any upgrades you may need for more complicated returns.

The Simple plan, which is ideal for first time customers, offers step-by-step guidance through the tax filing process, and allows you to get your max refund as fast as possible.

The Premium plan (also free) is for those who own homes, make contributions to an HSA, or have earned income credit.

The Advanced plan (also free) is for those who have investments, own a small business, or have K-1 income.

The Deluxe Edition (available for a fee) is an affordable way to get a product that has all of the benefits of the Free Edition product and includes audit assistance, live chat support, and unlimited amended returns. The price for this product is $6.99. With the Deluxe plan, you can file an unlimited number of amended returns for free. If you want to purchase the ability to file amended returns without purchasing the Deluxe plan, it will cost you $14.99 if purchased separately.

State Price

Like the federal option, the state filing option with FreeTaxUSA comes with the fastest refund when people go through a free e-file and direct deposit. The cost to file a state return is $14.99.

Features

FreeTaxUSA offers some convenient features to make your life as a taxpayer easier. For example, if you are a returning user, your account from the previous year rolls over for free, and you can access backup versions of previous tax returns that you have filed using FreeTaxUSA's tax software.

If you are a new user but have previously used a tax preparation software such as TurboTax, H&R Block, or TaxAct, you can easily import your previous tax return from one of those companies to your account on FreeTaxUSA.

In addition, FreeTaxUSA offers some features that you can choose to pay for, but are not included in its free federal plan or paid state plan. These include purchasing a mailed printed return, which you can do for $7.99, or purchasing a professionally bound tax return, which you can do for $14.99.

You can choose to pay with a credit or debit card for no additional fee, or you can elect to have the cost of filing your return (if you are on a paid plan) deducted from your tax refund before your refund ever gets to you. This option, while convenient, costs an extra $19.99.

Supported Forms

The list of supported forms offered by FreeTaxUSA is very comprehensive and even the most complex tax issues can be addressed with these options. Even though the company doesn't include every possible tax form, this covers a majority of the most popular ones. Some of the forms U.S. residents can access for free include

  • 1040, 1040EZ, 1040A, 1040Z
  • Schedule A, B, C, D, E, EIC, F, and more
  • Form 1099-A, 1099-B, 1099-C, 1099-DIV, and more
  • Form W2
  • Unemployment
  • Self-employment Income

The greatest benefit to FreeTaxUSA is the company's focus on free federal filings. FreeTaxUSA has helped millions of people file their federal returns completely free. The company also provides a lot of form options and gives automatic prompts for deductions throughout the filing process. These are great features that help the client.

Income Disclosure

FreeTaxUSA has a simple yet appreciated income disclosure on its website. It states that the company is able to provide a free federal tax filing service to clients because it makes its money from charging to file state returns and for other optional services that people can choose to purchase. Thus, even though filing a federal return with FreeTaxUSA is completely free, the company is still reliable and has your best interests in mind.

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The Bad

  • Accuracy Guarantee
  • No Audit Protection
  • Lack of Customer Support

Accuracy Guarantee

Even though FreeTaxUSA says it has a 100% Accuracy Guarantee for its federal tax filing, it does not protect against user error. If you input your financial information incorrectly, you will be responsible for these discrepancies.

No Audit Protection

FreeTaxUSA doesn't offer audit protection or alerts for missing data to its clients.

Lack of Customer Support

FreeTaxUSA does not have a phone number for clients to contact customer service. You can only contact FreeTaxUSA via email, live chat, or social media if you have questions. You can reach out to FreeTaxUSA via Twitter (@FreeTaxUSA) or email (support@freetaxusa.com).

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The Bottom Line

FreeTaxUSA has a large number of options for clients and provides a simple free tax return. This free tax return also allows for any level of complexity at the federal level without requiring customers to upgrade or pay anything. Also, the company's tax software automatically suggests deductions to clients during the filing process, which is extremely helpful.

However, the company doesn't have free audit protection, and the customer support lacks phone service. FreeTaxUSA doesn't have a phone number to contact to ask questions while filing, which is very important. Overall, FreeTaxUSA has some great features, but if you don't have in-depth knowledge about tax prep, this may not be the best company for you, as it doesn't have many options in the process.

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Star Rating

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4.2

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91 Reviews

Review Breakdown

5 grade

63%

4 grade

15%

3 grade

10%

2 grade

2%

1 grade

10%

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Jewelleah Kempers Los Angeles, CA

FreeTaxUSA is a pretty decent online tax prep program that let's you get in and efile both your federal and state tax returns quickly and securely. However, they only offer a free version for the most basic of returns and state is always a paid feature. You can choose to not file a state return with them to have a totally free basic federal return done and e-filed rather easily. There are a ton of deductions though and using any of them generally results in needing to upgrade to a paid return. But the prices are lower than other similar services so you won't have to pay much and still can get every extra deduction you are due!

2 years ago

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Andy Colorado Springs, CO

Have used FTUSA for the last 4 years. Never really had any issues, even with moving for a job, buying a house, charity donations. It was all very simple. But one things has always confused me..how i can put the SAME exact information into multiple sites, yes..I'm the type of guy who will try multiple sites each year to see the results. Every year, Free tax ends up getting me more of a refund or says i owe less. Something might be off, but I promise..the numbers are exactly the same that i put in HR and Turbo. Never got an audit before. It is very easy to use.

9 years ago

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Lissa Brooklyn, NY

Really good website for filing taxes! Also their customer service and billing department were really helpful and fast when handling our refund. We couldn't use their website because we were missing some info. This year and they were kind and refundef our money. Would totally recommend.

9 years ago

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Calista Huber Phoenix, AZ

I thought the process of using FreeTaxUSA was simple and user friendly! We have used other tax services in the past, and FreeTaxUSA seemed to be more thorough and helped us get more of our money back without hiring an actual accountant to help us. It is always a little intimidating to do our taxes and to know I've done it right, but FreeTaxUSA made it easy, fairly quick, and accurate!

3 years ago

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Hannah Judd Salt Lake City, UT

I like that they are more transparent than other services with their fees - like, they don't charge extra fees for every random additional form you have to fill out that really shouldn't be that hard (and I know, because I'm a CPA). I also like that you don't have to pay extra for customer service. I did find this year that I had to make some edits myself because I didn't agree with how some of the numbers were flowing through, but overall it worked well and I plan to continue to use them.

5 years ago

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Dave Fortin Kingston, PA

I was actually surprised to see how easy this was to use. I did my friends taxes through this site. Though, it's not completely free. There are still fees associated but you can at least still file your state for free.

3 years ago

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Pauline Causse Provo, UT

What drew me to FreeTaxUSA is the price. The process is also pretty straightforward. The interface is not as nice looking as some other competing companies, but I'll take that over a cheaper price any day

3 years ago

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Jake Mecham Lehi, UT

I have used FreeTaxUSA every year for my tax returns, and they are always great, but are they really the best one? I feel that they are a reliable and great company, but I never know if there are better ones...

4 years ago

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Nancy Morales Gilbert, AZ

My experience with Free Tax USA was easy to use. I was leery of not using anything other than the big name tax prepare but I'm glad I have Free Tax USA a try. They made it easy to file previous year tax returns as well.

6 years ago

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Dre35 West Valley City, UT

Great for a simple 1040-EZ. Very simple layout, and easy to complete. Once you get to itemizing, and adding on other forms, might not be the site for you.

4 years ago

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David Way Portland, OR

They let you do past year returns easily enough. No issues on a fairly simple return.

8 years ago

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Kent Lehi, UT

Used the service to do the taxes for me kids. I found it to be easy and cost effective.

6 years ago

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Janet Dragoo Phoenix, AZ

Ease of use of the website and questions

7 years ago

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Patrick Worcester, MA

It does all what a simple filer needed.

10 years ago