TurboTax Online is such a scam.

Forum|Forum|2 months ago
April 11, 2026
7 replies
54 views

My sons have used for the past few years and had simple returns. Always free. This year was a different story.

Son #1 was "upgraded" from Free to Deluxe while he was doing his return. He only had W2 income and a tiny amount of Interest income. NOTHING about his return should have triggered the deluxe. TT simply trade to scam him into upgrading. It took a while but we finally found a way to "downgrade" his version to free.

Son #2 was very similar BUT he qualified for the American Education Credit. Because of that one addition to his very simple 1 W2 and 1 1099-INT and extremely minimal amount of total income, he was forced to "upgrade" to deluxe. It ended up costing him ~$150 to process and e-file Fed and NJ returns. A full ~$70 more than I spent on filing my very complex returns via Desktop Deluxe version.

In both cases, TT never notified them when or why it upgraded. When it came time to submit they were just surprised with the cost.

Very disgusting Turbo Tax. You're taking advantage of the you low income filers who do everything online. Can't wait until we have more/better options born from AI by next year.

TurboTax Free Edition Online

m021394

Level 2

Same thing happend to me , waiting for customer service to contact me and give me a refund for this terrible website , it said 40$ was only going to be charged and it did over 100$. Turbotax is a scam

LindaS5247

Level 14

The TurboTax Free Edition is for customers who are filing simple Form 1040 returns only (no schedules except for Earned Income Credit, Child Tax Credit and Student Loan Interest. Roughly 3.7% of taxpayers qualify. If you have additional forms or attachments, you'll need to use a different TurboTax product

You can review your fees using the instructions below to find out why you're being charged. You can follow the instructions in this article to remove any unwanted Fees Why am I being charged for TurboTax Free Edition?

You can review your fees in TurboTax online as follows:

Go to the left side on your screen under "Tax Home"
Go to "Tax Tools" then "Tools"
The "Tools Center" Box will pop up
Click on "My Fees" to see a summary of your Turbo Tax Fees.

If you have additional information or questions regarding this, please return to Community and we would be glad to help.

**Say "Thanks" by clicking the thumb icon in a post. **Mark the post that answers your question by clicking on "Mark as Best Answer"

m021394

Level 2

Turbo tax is a scam. I was charged for services i didnt use and the website did nothing to tell me they were added. Now they denied my refund for services. I recommend nobody use this **bleep**

user17760577487

Level 2

I couldn't agree more. Was all set to pay the standard fee, they ask you to hit a review button that never indicates a charge will be made, and then you are charged $209 on top of the standard $79 fee. Its is criminal what they are doing and it is very misleading. 2 seconds of AI does not justify those fee's. Shame on you Turbo Tax, how can you sleep at night taking advantage of so many people. And to top it off you make it impossible to dispute the charges.

allen67

Level 2

I'm sorry to hear that happened. I'm old school and use the desktop version. Just dispute the charges with your bank or ccard company. They will refund first and then do the research. They will ask if you tried to deal with the vendor first. Good luck.

WilliamB67

Level 2

Calling Customer Service is a joke too. I just got walked through a bunch of questions, then it hung up without answering what I called for. $180 down the drain.

talleyface

Level 2

This is my situation. Charges are obfuscated, all under the guise of help.

And the world keeps turning

user17770643538

Level 2

Bonjour, ils m'ont aussi prélevé les frais d'un expert de luxe à 100$ + taxe, total 114$, alors que j'avais opté pour déclaration Solo à 20$ lequel ils ont aussi prélevé.

Comment vous en êtes vous sortis? Avez vous été remboursés?

user17773027319

Level 2

You can file a complaint at the FTC website