Free federal tax return software?

[Por_sha911]

Time to file federal returns. Always use simple standard deduction. TurboTax is NOT free if you have interest income. Has anyone used

Credit Karma
FileYourTaxes.com
FreeTaxUSA
OLT.com

?

[rwest]

I started using Free Tax Act after getting sick of Turbo Tax claiming it was free and then “sneaking” other fees and charges in.

I’ve used it now for probably more than 3 years and have been completely satisfied and last year I even had an sole proprietorship llc business and it handles that easily too.

Rutager

[Por_sha911]

Cool.
Anyone else?

[Por_sha911]

Well it looks like we've got plenty of time but, anyone else have a suggestion and/or experience?

[MRM]

Yes. I did both my sons' tax returns for free. Go to the IRS web site and you will find a page dedicated to free tax software offered by various companies. They each have different qualifiers for their free service, but there have to be at least 15 different ones. Many include dividend and interest income. The boys both have 1099-Div forms and I was able to file for both of them without a problem.

I was working with one computer and didn't feel like clearing the cache, so I had to use two different products because the program kept recognizing me as the first son each time I tried to do the other one's returns. I used H&R Block and something called OnLine Taxes, which seems to be an Intuit product. The H&R Block program was far and away easier to use. The user interface was more intuitive, easier to understand and faster. The Online Tax program did everything exactly the same, but the user interface was much harder to navigate.

I would strongly recommend starting at IRS.gov and looking at H&R Block. Also, all of the companies offered what looked like a reduced fee for people who didn't qualify for a completely free program. Just check around to see what meets your needs, but do give H&R Block a close look. I hate taxes, forms and math, but they made the process pretty painless even for me.

P.S. make sure the program you select also has your state returns as an included option. Both H&R Block and OLT included the corresponding state tax return and the process was completely seamless. Couldn't recommend going the online/free route highly enough.

P.P.S. I read your post more closely and saw that you specifically asked about OLT. It s a fine product. It handles dividend and interest income and gets you where you need to go without too much hassle. I just like the layout and user interface of H&R Block better. In the end, both products did exactly the same thing and handled the state tax return with no problem.