I honestly don’t know why I keep revisiting this forum, but I really don’t get the overzealous defense of TurboTax in this case.
First, with any guided tax prep service, you are technically self-preparing your taxes. So you really need to know what the end result should roughly be before you even start. If you don’t know what your end result should be if you did your taxes manually, then you really don’t know which service is correct.
My end result was dollar for dollar identical between TT and FreeTaxUSA. (I had paid taxes on 1/3 of my covid withdrawal last year, and recontributed 2/3 for this tax return. So it was a net zero effect on my taxes, but I still had to file 8915-f to document the recontribution.)
In this instance, TT is offering a subpar product (delayed forms, unclear info) for at least 5 times the cost ($15 vs $80+).
I looked into it, and the free file partners on the IRS site are part of a public-private-partnership to make e-filing more accessible and cheaper for people. The participating companies have to meet certain criteria such as not trying to up-sell customers on uneccessary services. TT has decided not to participate in that public-private partnership probably bc they wouldn’t make as much money.
Also, another aspect I thought was interesting on FreeTaxUSA is that you can see draft versions of your actual IRS forms and worksheets as you go, which you can’t do on TT. (Again, if TT allowed that, people could use the guided service, but then manually do their taxes and not pay. ) Obviously that wouldn’t be good for business, but I’m just pointing out a difference that is probably related to the public-private-partnership thing.
So I really don’t care if anyone uses the other companies, but defending TT so hard in this case is puzzling for sure.
