E-filing taxes - need advice....

[ACsMom]

Do any of you do your own taxes online and e-file? If so, what's the BEST program out there (i.e. easiest to use and inexpensive, with "easiest" being the more important criteria)??? I've had Turbo Tax recommended to me, but it seems a little more expensive and I'm not sure you can use it to e-file.

Thanks for any advice!!!

[tamagotchi]

Yes, you can use TurboTax to e-file. That's what I do every year. It is very easy to use, but you do have to pay for it. If you are looking for a cheaper option, I've heard TaxACT is good too.

[LianneM]

We use Turbo Tax also. We don't e-file but you can. I think it's a $15 fee.

[vickjul]

I use TaxAct.

I quit using TurboTax about four years ago after someone at their processing center swiped my credit card info and used it to order themselves a new $1300 laptop. :-(

TaxAct is free to use online; e-filing (state and federal) is less than $20.

[mama_y_sol]

Turbo tax is SUPER easy. I end up paying a little more, but it is so easy with turbotax, that I will gladly pay a little more. I don't e-file, but like pp said, you can with a pretty small fee.

For ease of use, I have had great experience with turbotax...

[RoadWorkAhead]

I'm personally in love with H&R block. I've used them every year since I got out of college, and I can always track down my returns, etc. at the drop of a hat. We had more than one source of self employment income, self employment deductions, standard W-2s, and ESA disbursements....And it might have taken me 2 hours?? Probably not that long. It was 14.95 and worth every penny. I had my return about 18-19 days later (Direct Deposit by the way, is done on Thursday night/Friday AM if anyone needs to know). They can do state if you live in a state that requires them...I think it was an additonal 15$ or so...there was a package price IIRC.

[zersha]

We definintely prefer TurboTax. Dh has bought it for several years.

Since there are several free programs out there this year through the IRS site, we thought we'd try one of the others. Dh got really agrivated with a couple of the other programs and went back to TurboTax. And keep in mind he's a professional bookkeeper and has done taxes for ourselves and other people for many years.

You may be able to use Turbotax for free if you check the IRS site. The only reason we tried a couple of the others is because we weren't sure that we qualified to use the free Turbotax, but it ended up we did. Each free program has it's own requirements.

The program as well as the E-filing is free if you meet the requirements through the IRS site. We even got the state taxes for free.

[nolansmummy]

We've used h&r block the past 3 years now. We have had really easy taxes in thee past, this years was little more difficult but i still was able to figure it out. I love that they keep my old taxs on file, and i can access them. It was free for us, and state was like 20$. We got our return direct deposited about 2.5 weeks later, this was in early february though.

[SumnerRain]

We used H&R block online this year for the third year in a row for the LAST time.

We filed a return and because of the tax law changes they held it until the IRS was ready... in that time I got an unexpected return so I contacted them daily to see about pulling it back so I can fix it. No response.

So it went through and I finally got someone in the chat room to tell me I now have to file a 1040x (which I knew) and I just needed to buy the $40 software to do it... Ok, I did not want to do that, but I will... so I did and I cannot import in my tax info so it is useless... I get my $40 refunded minus a $5 download fee and end up having just to file it by hand. The lack of customer care was infuriating, especially when I was expected to pay twice for something that could have been fixed if my emails and phone calls had just been returned.

[TiredX2]

We use Tax Act. It has always been free for us to e-file federal (we don't use the "deluxe" though), but I'm pretty sure state costs something (no state income taxes in WA).

Here is where the IRS lists the places that you can do it for free:

http://www.irs.gov/efile/article/0,,id=118986,00.html

The IRS says you have to have an AGI of under $54K, but I don't think that is true. If you look at TaxAct's page, it says it is free for federal (no income limits listed) and then $14 for state:

http://www.taxact.com/

I also like Tax Act because they support free tax returns for Same-Sex Couples (in states where that is "legal") unlike H&R Block:

http://www.courant.com/news/local/hc...,4268053.story