This is all true, but, honestly, I filed for FREE just last year. I made more than $5K LESS in 2021 and got a refund of over $1100 using this service. For tax year 2022, I used the same service, thinking I was getting the FREE service that's plastered all over Credit Karma and the Turbo Tax home page, only to have to spend half my time toggling OFF the charged options. By the time I got half way through my filings, I realized I was still going to have to pay at least $59 to file my State's taxes, even after selecting the simple filing option 4 times. Once I got to the end of the process, I was hit with 2 $59 charges, 1 for Federal, and 1 for State, for a total of $118, once again, for something that should have been FREE. Finally, since it was easier to simply have those funds deducted from my refund, which I already wasn't pleased with, Turbo Tax hit me where it really hurt, and applied an ADDITIONAL $39 charge for the "convenience" of taking my other $118 out of my refund. So, in short, the advertised FREE service actually cost me $157 plus, get this, TAX.
Don't get me wrong. I don't honestly expect to get things for FREE. There's always going to be a cost associated with these situations, be it time, or advertising, etc. My issue truly lies with the fact that when a company with the size and clout and resources, like Intuit, is baiting people in with a free service, why do they need to bury, and hide, these ridiculous charges?? I'd rather they just openly say the service is no longer free. Had I not already spent the time I did in getting my information input and known in advance I was going to end up SPENDING $160 for an advertised free service, I would have just spent that same time loading my information directly to the IRS website, which is what I'll likely do next year.
I truly hope that Intuit and Turbo Tax take a good look at the messaging they're putting out and make some adjustments. With rising costs over the past few years, these funds could have easily been used to pay for groceries, not on filing a simple, straight forward, 1040.
Vent session now complete, the filing process is still relatively simple and quick. The autoload feature for my W2 was a nice update, but even though I filed with Turbo Tax for the past several years, unlike previous filings, none of my prior tax info seemed to be available for faster filing verification. All in all, I've been pleased with the ease of access through this year. I fear Turbo Tax has fallen into the same pit as so many others, using the pandemic and rising costs to justify these changes, exchanging a great customer experience for the almighty dollar, and sticking it to the people who could truly use these funds to stay afloat. Sad....
