DaBears says TurboTax’s free online tax prep ended up sticking him with hidden fees totaling $60. He writes:

When filing my taxes last night, TurboTax online’s “Free” tax preparation and online filing ended up costing me about 60$ The first 30$ fee was because I had to enter a separate form to include the sale of a stock. The second 30$ was from the fee they charge you to prepare your free return if you don’t pay with a credit card and are owed a refund. And here I was thinking free meant free.

This sounds like a case of not reading the fine print before jumping into what seems like a good deal at the last minute, but DaBears may have a legitimate gripe because TurboTax seems to make it tough for users to actually get free help. If you were able to use the TurboTax site without paying, let us know how you did it.

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