Thank you for being a valued part of the CNET community. As of December 1, 2020, the forums are in read-only format. In early 2021, CNET Forums will no longer be available. We are grateful for the participation and advice you have provided to one another over the years.

Thanks,

CNET Support

General discussion

When is free income tax filing not free?

Feb 25, 2004 10:00AM PST

The IRS has a referal program for online filing. The site (Free File) can refer users to the web sites of a variety of vendors, each of whom has its own rules regarding which filers can take advantage of the free services.

Most of the sites are aimed at low income filers or children, but one requires filers to have an AGI > $100,000 to be eligible for free filing. Personally I think that's bogus. If your AGI is that large you can manage to file without the subsidy. Furthermore, there are a lot of us who really don't know what our AGI is until after we prepare the forms. I certainly didn't.

This description puzzles me:
Free Offer and Company Information
TaxACT.com is your fast, easy and secure tax preparation solution! FREE for EVERYONE! Even if you don't qualify for a free filing opportunity, TaxACT Online is one of the lowest priced e-file providers on the web.


If it's free for EVERYONE then how can you not qualify?

Discussion is locked

- Collapse -
Re:When is free income tax filing not free?
Feb 25, 2004 10:19AM PST

Hi again

I went on that site few weeks back looking for the instruction pages for my Daughter. ( Forms & Publications)

Everything is free, free till you get to Adobe Acrobat Reader. It comes up, but you can't read it, till you pay $2.99 I don't know who gets the $2.99

I went to Post Office and got the whole book for free.

George

- Collapse -
Re:Re:When is free income tax filing not free?
Feb 25, 2004 10:28AM PST

If you're going to mail it in you can get all the forms and instructions from http://www.irs.gov/ for free. Most of the forms are available now as fill-in forms in pdf format.

- Collapse -
Re:Re:Re:(NT)Thanks Clay. Both sites look the same, But Diff... Strange
Feb 25, 2004 10:44AM PST

.

- Collapse -
Re:When is free income tax filing not free?
Feb 25, 2004 10:23AM PST

FWIW, I used TaxCut2003 because it came with a full rebate for Money, TaxCut State and Deduction Pro as well as a $5 rebate for TaxCut itself with included a free e-filing with the purchase of the software. TaxCut was $24.95 so the effective total for everything was $19.95 plus postage to file the rebates on everything.

- Collapse -
Re:When is free income tax filing not free?
Feb 26, 2004 1:29AM PST

Bill, if you want to use electronic filing with TaxAct you do not qualify for free filing because that costs $7.95 per return. Otherwise it is free (unless you have to file state returns which are not free).

You can also simply download the TaxAct Standard to your computer and do your taxes without charges of any sort (except again state prep and filing and Federal electronic filing).

The standard version is not well suited to complicated returns or S-Corp or Partnership returns but in conjunction with other forms and booklets available from the IRS it can be used.