Like @Critter , I don't work for TurboTax either; I just post here regularly during tax season and occasionally get goodies from Intuit in return. (I know we were both "superusers" before they changed the title to "Intuit Community Champions" and asked us to sign contracts to keep our status. I signed mine and now have the "Champ" tag by my name; Critter doesn't so he may no longer be in that program.)
For many years, one of the most constant questions here has been "Why was I charged? I thought TurboTax was free." Those people, like the ones Critter talked about, failed to read the fine print constantly shown them once they start with the Free Edition at turbotax.com (part of commercial TurboTax), which is a narrow offering -- 1040A or 1040EZ before last tax season, a "simple" 1040 (requiring no schedules other than for EITC & ACTC) these last two years -- and becomes paid TurboTax if your situation doesn't fall into that.
For all those years, I've responded by telling them to use TurboTax's IRS Free File product, which has AGI limitations but NOT the form limitations of commercial Free Edition, and in recent years does NOT upsell you to paid TurboTax if you don't qualify. I know it's a good site because I've used it myself for years (including this year). Contrary to what a certain "public interest" website with an agenda against commercial online e-file sites has implied (some *other* IRS Free File providers used complicated URLs to hide direct access to their free sites), TurboTax's direct IRS Free File address has been public since before IRS Free File even existed: www.taxfreedom.com (which this year redirects to https://freefile.intuit.com/ ). I have patiently offered that URL to customers here for years (perhaps even decades), and still people miss it.
I'm not nearly as dry as Critter, but I fully agree with everything he said today. Intuit, though it has been considerate enough to offer TWO different free versions of TurboTax every year for a very long time, is still a private, profit-making company. It makes a lot of money selling TurboTax (online, mobile, and CD/download) because it's the best DIY commercial software out there, period. Perhaps that is why last year, despite the new rules and bad publicity, more taxpayers filed for free using the commercial TurboTax Free Edition than *ALL* IRS Free File providers combined (including TurboTax's own IRS Free File product). If you end up with paid TurboTax anyway (with or without the extra fee for paying with your refund) despite all the warnings, that is ultimately YOUR responsibility. Critter just showed you where you missed them. I fully stand behind his remark.
