Commenter Witeowl points out in another thread that if your adjusted gross income was $54,000 or less last year, the IRS can direct you to 19 different companies that will allow you to e-file your 2007 taxes for free. When this writer took advantage of it in the past, "free" meant jumping through a series of GoDaddy-like pages, but in the end it was free to use. [IRS]
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I have free e-filed using turbotax for the last 7 years (I am a medical student so I made little money through college until now). It has never involved any hoops. I just went to the IRS website and linked through there to the TurboTax site. Easy.
I went to the Turbo Tax site thinking I had used them last year (without looking it up, of course) via a mailer they had sent. All went well until they wanted to charge me $29.95 for my state return. Considering that to be on the high side, like almost the cost of the "free" software. I deleted the info.
Then I looked up what I used last year, freetaxusa, and used them again. No hassles, I had my password from last year which saved input time, and only $9.95 for my State return (always optional, of course).
Good point, Texas (where I reside) does not have a state income tax, but TurboTax through the free IRS link does charge for that service.
MA has a site that lists the free IRS sites that also allow you to file your state taxes online for free. However, I found it was more accurate to do my state taxes by hand. Not a single online site agreed as to what I paid and some skipped sections of the form.
If you live in Illinois, you can file your state taxes for free on their website, [tax.illinois.gov] I usually use HRBlock.com for our federal ($19.95 which isn't bad since we own a business) and then opt out of their state option. The only thing is, your filing status/name can not have changed from last year.
Both last year and this year the first "free" site I linked to from the IRS tried to charge me to file my federal taxes (I always do my state taxes on the state web site). Few things are more frustration in than to wast 20 minutes clicking through screens only to get to a screen asking for payment. I really miss Telefile and the ability to do my taxes for free and in under five minutes.
Why doesn't the IRS itself just offer a program to input tax returns for those off us who don't make lots of money instead of making us go to outside companies?
@Karl: ditto on taxact. this is my 3rd year using it & not only is it free, it's easy as hell (assuming you know how to fill out web forms & click a mouse button).
The free TurboTax one off the IRS website was very easy to use. I used a different one last time and had a bit of trouble with it but I was VERY pleased with this one.
@alexanderpink: It depends on your income and that requirement varies from state to state. I was able to do my federal and state taxes for free last year using the IRS link for TurboTax.
I used Turbotax last year, but this year I found www.taxslayer.com. It was free federal filing, and the cheapest state filing that I could find.
The IRS website pointed me to H&R Block's website and I e-filed for free there. Fast, painless, and had my refund in exactly 7 business days.
Sux to be married filing jointly, though.
The AGI cap is $54k for those filers too. Marriage penalty, anyone?
I used TurboTax Fredoom edition the one linked on the irs site and worked like a charm and since my state participates in some sort of program it was also free.
I used TaxAct.com this year, which is free to everyone. They did push their "deluxe" version about a half-dozen times, but it's easy to decline. And of course, filing your state taxes will cost extra.