Without meaning to be flip or rude - there is no free lunch. The free TurboTax offers are for very simple tax returns which truly don't even require TT to complete. Intuit can't provide anything but the most simple services for free or they would go out of business in short order. Their price structure, by comparison to paid tax preparers, however, if very reasonable. There must have been something about your return which transcended the very simple returns which are offered gratis. What they charge is truly not a whole lot in comparison to what one would pay any 3rd party preparer. The fact that you had to upgrade 3X tells me that your taxes are not so simple and you would have paid a hefty price for a paid professional to complete them on your behalf.
