It turns out that if you start the process from, it’s impossible to find the truly free version. Here’s what it looks like behind the curtain: ch: /personal-taxes/online/Įven though TurboTax could tell we were eligible to file for free, the company never told us about the truly free version. In the source code, TurboTax had branded us as “NONFFA.” That stands for “Non Free File Alliance.” In other words, we were not on track to file for free after all. Even though we clicked on the “FREE Guaranteed” option and met all the requirements to file for free, the company had tagged us as a potential paying customer. We took a close look at the source code of the TurboTax website and noticed something strange. So how did we end up with a product that would make us pay? Are the house cleaner and the cashier not allowed to prepare and file their taxes for free because of their particular tax situations? No! According to the agreement between the IRS and the companies, anyone who makes less than $66,000 can prepare and file their taxes for free. We went back to and clicked on “FREE Guaranteed.” This time, we went through the process as a Walgreens cashier without health insurance, entering personal information and giving the company lots of sensitive data.Īgain, TurboTax told us we had to pay - this time because there’s an extra form if you don’t have insurance. Turns out the house cleaner didn’t qualify because he is a independent contractor. TurboTax asked us to click through more than a dozen questions and prompts about our finances.Īfter all of that, only then did we get the bad news: TurboTax revealed this wasn’t going to be free at all.

We entered extensive personal information. We started the process by creating the profile of a TaskRabbit house cleaner who took in $29,000. It contained the word “free” five times! We clicked and were relieved to see that filing for free was guaranteed. We searched for “irs free file taxes.”Īnd we thought we found what we were looking for: Ads from TurboTax and others directing us to free products. Here’s what happened when we went looking. Email address This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

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