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wespad | 3 years ago

https://www.freetaxusa.com/ and their parent company https://www.taxhawk.com/

They charge $14.99 for the state filing. Usually a coupon code available. Or go to the state's website (CA at least), and file that for free, too. But for the convenience of not having to input my info again, I'll pay their fee.

discuss

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gavinhoward|3 years ago

Relative of a TaxHawk employee here. I'd be happy to pass along any bugs or issues since they probably don't have any employees on HN.

Also, supporting TaxHawk means supporting a company that cares about their employees. They have done so many things for my relative that it makes me jealous. They have also kept raising wages ahead of inflation.

Anyway, TaxHawk is a great company to support!

wardedVibe|3 years ago

Been filing with freetaxusa for years, glad to hear its also good for the employees.

tennisflyi|3 years ago

That's what I like to hear.

KyleJune|3 years ago

At what point is it recommended to not use a software like freetaxusa? I've been using it for years.

HaloZero|3 years ago

I volunteer with VITA and do taxes a lot but not a full time accountant. I've been doing my own taxes for years.

I would say you need your own accountant and not software if:

1) You have complexities involving trusts/inheritance

2) Anything involving crypto (this is just a grey area to me and things change)

3) Anything that sounds more complex than anything above.

If you're getting a bunch of 1099-DIVs/INT & W2/W9s it's not super complex.

moneywoes|3 years ago

Being a US citizen abroad. I’m in this situation and have had to pay huge sums to accountants

If anyone has any recommendations I’m all ears

bmitc|3 years ago

FreeTaxUSA can be confusing though. It makes it quite unclear what is contributing to what portion of your tax bill. I like it better than the other more popular, mainstream options, but its usability isn't great. I never have full confidence I'm paying the correct amount or getting the correct amount as a refund.

marzell|3 years ago

|what is contributing to what portion of your tax bill

Do you have an example of what other products provide for this? Does IRS Free File do better in this regard?

gavinhoward|3 years ago

Relative of an employee here.

My relative has had to do UX work, and at least to me, it sounds like they care about it. But my relative also talks about how they're not the best at it.

So can you explain in more detail what you are wanting? Do you want some sort of way to see a line item list of what the tax bill is?

johnmaguire|3 years ago

Interestingly I've found it much easier to use than TurboTax for some tricky tax situations I've found myself in.

jlv2|3 years ago

I have a big problem with FreeTaxUsa... I don't want my tax return data on their server. I want to have something I can run on my own computer.

(and it really bothers me that taxhawk.com and freetaxusa.com are mimics of each other... why have two sites with different branding that are under the cover the same thing?)

gavinhoward|3 years ago

Relative of an employee of FreeTaxUSA/TaxHawk.

The two sites are targeting different kinds of people. That's why they exist. They are the same (and same company) because in the end, everyone has to go through the same processes for taxes.

As for keeping the tax return data on their server, it's for convenience and possibly for other reasons. My relative believes that, for legal reasons, FreeTaxUSA is considered a "tax preparer" and needs to keep those records.

niij|3 years ago

+1. I find them to be the least-bad option. They have all the forms I need even for a moderately complicated tax situation. They're cheap. And most importantly they aren't one of the evil companies lobbying for more complicated tax code (Intuit and H&R Block) .

JadeNB|3 years ago

> They charge $14.99 for the state filing. Usually a coupon code available. Or go to the state's website (CA at least), and file that for free, too. But for the convenience of not having to input my info again, I'll pay their fee.

Some states don't offer a free-file option. My memory, which is at least a few years out of date, is that MI doesn't.

bityard|3 years ago

IIRC, Freetaxusa will walk you through the state taxes and if you look through the UI, you can see the MI forms that it filled out. At that point, you could copy their forms to your own and mail them in yourself, but I've always paid the $15 to have them file it because I feel they've earned it.

mamcx|3 years ago

This could work for deal with an LLC former from abroad? Not us citizen?