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FreeTaxUSA

freetaxusa.com

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Re: FreeTaxUSA

#101

Post by roshin »

gavinhoward wrote: post #55

I am a (fairly) close relative of an employee and a happy user. Feel free to ask me questions, and I'll pass them onto her! Also, FreeTaxUSA is not only great for users, but they are fantastic to employees. My relative got to go on a cruise this summer, and she claims their pay has more than kept up with inflation.

2 things.

It might be too late to change the name, but the name is misleading. As cheap as it is, it is not completely free. I understand needing to make money, but the first thought I had when I saw that it was not in fact free, was, what else are they misleading about.

Please please please support expats. I've never lived in the US, and although I don't technically pay taxes, filling is so expensive that that in of itself is a tax for me.

Re: FreeTaxUSA

#102

Post by kanak »

gavinhoward wrote: post #55

I am a (fairly) close relative of an employee and a happy user. Feel free to ask me questions, and I'll pass them onto her! Also, FreeTaxUSA is not only great for users, but they are fantastic to employees. My relative got to go on a cruise this summer, and she claims their pay has more than kept up with inflation.

Any plans to support receiving refunds as Paper I-Bonds? i.e. Form 8888 ( https://www.irs.gov/refunds/using-your-income-tax-refund-to-... )

Re: FreeTaxUSA

#103

Post by [deleted] »

roshin wrote: post #101
gavinhoward wrote: post #55

I am a (fairly) close relative of an employee and a happy user. Feel free to ask me questions, and I'll pass them onto her! Also, FreeTaxUSA is not only great for users, but they are fantastic to employees. My relative got to go on a cruise this summer, and she claims their pay has more than kept up with inflation.

2 things. It might be too late to change the name, but the name is misleading. As cheap as it is, it is not completely free. I understand needing to make money, but the first thought I had when I saw that it was not in fact free, was, what else are they misleading about. Please please please support expats. I've never lived in the US, and although I don't technically pay taxes, filling is so expensive that that in of…

[deleted]

Re: FreeTaxUSA

#104

Post by medler »

swores wrote: post #98
SOLAR_FIELDS wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I despise that “minor clerical error in massively complex tax system with multiple forms causes significant money losing tax implications for your average end user” is even a thing in the first place.

I mean, I obviously agree that the complication in the US tax system is crazy, and also think that every country should do what the UK does in allowing PAYE income taxation (Pay As You Earn - most people in standard jobs have their company take the correct amount of tax from each salary payment and pass it direct to the government, the employee then doesn't even have to file taxes at the end of the year unless they h…

This mistake was a consequence of the complicated tax system. It involved a complex maneuver (the backdoor Roth) that TurboTax supports but has a bad UX for. Presumably a less complicated tax system would eliminate these kinds of complex maneuvers

Re: FreeTaxUSA

#105

Post by pbronez »

dkokelley wrote: post #50

Honest question: Why don't more people (especially high earners) go with a CPA firm to take care of their taxes? With the amount of money involved, and the potential legal trouble for getting it wrong, the cost/benefit calculation seems to strongly favor hiring a professional to guide you.

I contacted a real live accountant a few years ago and was not impressed. I needed help implementing nanny tax for the first time. I wanted a one stop shop that would reduce it to just signatures for me. Instead it was more work than doing it myself and I wasn’t confident in the end result.

Re: FreeTaxUSA

#106

Post by quickthrowman »

huytersd wrote: post #82
quickthrowman wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, but you can enter a few numbers off your 1099-B and mail your trade history to the IRS. It took me about 30 minutes to enter a W-2, a few 1099-INTs, and 3 brokerage statements (plus 1099-DIV, futures, and 1256 contracts). Super simple and quick.

That’s too complicated and not immediate enough. Manual entering? Printing out and making a packet of trade histories for all my accounts, figuring out what address to send it to, manually going to the post office, waiting for confirmation of receipt weeks down the line, extra scrutiny because an agent has to manually review your paper copies etc. Yeah no thanks, that’s the opposite of super quick and simple. Super q…

Ok, you can go pay TurboTax $200 or whatever then. You have to enter in like 3 numbers, total $ bot/total $ sold/$ of wash trades.

I’ll spend 30 minutes, $15 dollars, and my office’s mailroom to send one single 9x13 envelope once a year. Don’t let perfect be the enemy of good.

Re: FreeTaxUSA

#107

Post by huytersd »

quickthrowman wrote: post #106
huytersd wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That’s too complicated and not immediate enough. Manual entering? Printing out and making a packet of trade histories for all my accounts, figuring out what address to send it to, manually going to the post office, waiting for confirmation of receipt weeks down the line, extra scrutiny because an agent has to manually review your paper copies etc. Yeah no thanks, that’s the opposite of super quick and simple. Super q…

Ok, you can go pay TurboTax $200 or whatever then. You have to enter in like 3 numbers, total $ bot/total $ sold/$ of wash trades. I’ll spend 30 minutes, $15 dollars, and my office’s mailroom to send one single 9x13 envelope once a year. Don’t let perfect be the enemy of good.

Yeah, that $150 is totally worth it for me because until the free software automatically integrates with external portals, TT is actually providing a valued service.

Re: FreeTaxUSA

#108

Post by bombcar »

SOLAR_FIELDS wrote: post #96
medler wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On form 1040, under “IRA distributions - taxable amount” (box 4b), TurboTax filled in the amount of my IRA conversion. It should have been left blank. This caused my taxable income to be increased by the amount of the conversion. Not good. My biggest mistake was not being more diligent about looking over form 1040. I feel like it should have been a pretty obvious error.

I despise that “minor clerical error in massively complex tax system with multiple forms causes significant money losing tax implications for your average end user” is even a thing in the first place.

The IRS has actually caught some that I've made, the only time they've ever complained to me has been to send me a larger check. First they send you a scary looking notice that they detected a discrepancy, and you have to agree, but each time it was an error that when fixed improved my refund.

Re: FreeTaxUSA

#109

Post by gavinhoward »

roshin wrote: post #101
gavinhoward wrote: post #55

I am a (fairly) close relative of an employee and a happy user. Feel free to ask me questions, and I'll pass them onto her! Also, FreeTaxUSA is not only great for users, but they are fantastic to employees. My relative got to go on a cruise this summer, and she claims their pay has more than kept up with inflation.

2 things. It might be too late to change the name, but the name is misleading. As cheap as it is, it is not completely free. I understand needing to make money, but the first thought I had when I saw that it was not in fact free, was, what else are they misleading about. Please please please support expats. I've never lived in the US, and although I don't technically pay taxes, filling is so expensive that that in of…

My relative and I have asked about a name change. They can't see the problem. :( Their marketing is so bad.

I have asked about expats before (I thought about living abroad). She says it is on the roadmap, but it isn't very lucrative, so it is low priority. They do implement new stuff every year, but they only have so much time to fo so.

Re: FreeTaxUSA

#110

Post by bombcar »

dkokelley wrote: post #50

Honest question: Why don't more people (especially high earners) go with a CPA firm to take care of their taxes? With the amount of money involved, and the potential legal trouble for getting it wrong, the cost/benefit calculation seems to strongly favor hiring a professional to guide you.

It's unlikely the CPA provides any additional liability protection as usually it all flows back to you as being responsible.

If it makes you feel better you can use a CPA once, and then mimic what they did in the years later. The best service they can do is recommend things that may minimize tax or reduce complexity. Note that minimizing tax may not be the best goal, however, especially with investments.

Or you can pay a CPA to do your taxes to feel like a "big boy".

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