Is it seriously tax time again? Already?! You've got to be kidding me. I swear, it's every freaking year, like clockwork.
Before I get to any freebies, let's get one thing out of the way. If you assume I'm going to take this opportunity to post my favorite Simpsons tax day video, then you know me too well!
If you're looking to get your IRS tax return in faster than Homer or before another huge backlog piles up, then I've got some free and discounted options below!
Free 2018 Federal Tax Filings
TurboTax Free Edition – TurboTax offers both free federal and state tax returns if you use the most common forms, like a 1040. However, they even offer slightly more forms for free than most other services – you can see a full list by scrolling down and click on grey “tax forms” tab. Also, if you're a returning customer, almost 50% of your work is done by transferring last year's info with a single click!
If you need to upgrade, TurboTax is offering up to $20 off through 2/18/19. Don't worry if you miss that deadline though, it's been my experience that it's rather easy to find another similar promo between now and tax day.
H&R Block Free – Another free federal and state tax option is H&R Block. On top of being free, they're heavily promoting the difference between them and TurboTax.
H&R Block is offering 45 forms required for filing your free online taxes, which is twice as many as TurboTax. They specifically mention these situations to look out for.
- For Families – Child and Dependent Care Expenses
- For Students – Student Loan Interest Deduction
- For Students – Tuition and Fees Statement
- For Uninsured – Health Coverage Exemptions
Obviously, if any of these situations apply to you, H&R Block sounds like the way to go!
If you find you need to upgrade to a different plan, you can get up to 35% off, but I'm not sure for how much longer.
TaxAct – Another provider offering $0 federal and state tax filings is TaxAct. Their free plan is for people with basic 1040, but one limitation is that it does not cover dependents.
Even if you need to upgrade, their first level of paid plans starts at just $10. However, I have a 20% off promo link, making the Basic plan only $7.96 and the Premier less than $30!
Credit Karma Tax – Credit Karma Tax is a premium product that's 100% free, from start to finish. That includes all of our super-useful features, plus free filing for all supported forms and situations. Have a side-hustle? Own a home or sold some stock? Other tax services might charge you to itemize these deductions – but we don't.
From what I can tell, they don't even have a premium plan, so there's really no coupons or promo codes needed.
TaxSlayer – The final, highly rated service on our list offering both state and federal tax returns for free is TaxSlayer. Like the others, this is primarily aimed at single, married, and student filers with a basic 1040.
Their paid services start at $17, but OFFER20 should save 20% off any of their plans!
FreeTaxUSA – Finally, we have FreeTaxUSA, who my friend swears by. One of their nice perks is that they offer all of their federal plans, both Free and Deluxe, absolutely free. So if you have a slightly more complicated federal return, you can still get it completely free with FreeTaxUSA.
The downside is they don't offer any free state tax returns. However, I looked around, and believe you can save 10% with either code FREETAXUSA or COUPONS10.
So there you have it! With one of those six sites, you should be able to file your taxes for free or extremely cheap. Now hopefully we get a break from all these taxes next year! I hear it's a leap year, that's gotta help us somehow.
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