This is my review of the 2018 IRS-Authorized tax e-filer, TaxAct®. My original article, Review of IRS FreeFile Companies, became too big to keep as one article. Go there for all the details of my test of the 12 providers, and links to the reviews of each.

Last update: 6/21/19

IRS FreeFile - Should I Use It? - Plus Earned Income & Child Credits is the prologue to this series - you may want to start there. It includes a chart based on both what the IRS reported about each provider and a few changes I made based on what I discovered, as well as other info about e-filing, including the Earned Income and Child Tax Credits, and my explanation of the criteria I used to test each provider.

I figured I wouldn't have any luck but most people probably won't encounter the problems I did. In any event, I suggest that you do the 1040 paper version (or you can edit the PDFs on your computer, which I think is easier) to make sure the provider you choose doesn't screw up before you e-file. Also, again, remember that I used special circumstances to test these providers - many people will not encounter these problems!

Note: "Option to donate to Presidential Election Campaign Fund:" refers to the opportunity to have $3 contributed to the election campaign, but doesn't cost you anything. It appears to come out of the taxes paid. It also pays for pediatric medical research.

Note: Customer Service Support types are those that are offered free-of-charge for free e-filing. Certain companies offer phone support for paying customers.

Note: The word "responsive" below is a programming word that means that the program changes what you see on the same page and ensuing pages. For example, if you answered "yes" to having gotten married this year, it would show you fields to enter info about your new spouse, but if you answered "no", that wouldn't appear or - if shown already - would disappear. Responsiveness is programming that is designed to make your experience more pleasing, easier and it adjusts to your screen-size (which is called "mobile first").

Given the complexity of tax laws these days, and the peculiarities of the scenario I set up, I am not surprised that every company had a problem helping me, and some either refused to or couldn't because of site limitations. All companies offered some sort of FAQ/written help section, but they varied in quality, completeness and accuracy.

THIS TEST SCENARIO DOES NOT TEST ALL POSSIBLE SPECIAL SITUATIONS, AND SOME ASPECTS OF IT ARE UNUSUAL, SO WHEN MAKING DECISIONS BASED ON THE REVIEWS I'VE PROVIDED, MAKE SURE TO TAKE THIS INTO CONSIDERATION BEFORE CHOOSING YOUR E-FILER.

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TaxAct®

🌟🌟.5 My Review

Cedar Rapids, Iowa
Summary: The interface is a pleasure to use, but it is suitable only for simple returns unless you’re willing to pay to upgrade. Despite the interface, you do need to know things about your taxes. As a result of their “incentive” to pay, there was no way to accurately test this “free” site based on the scenario I’ve devised. Claim on their website: “9 out of 10 customers would recommend TaxAct.*” (but that is from 2013!).
Note: Now that the tax season is over, they have discounted their prices.
Special note: They reached out to me in June 2019 and asked if I'd be willing to participate in some market research, and that I'd be reimbursed for my time. I agreed and, although I cannot tell you anything about it because I signed an agreement to keep it secret, I felt that it was a productive session that allowed me to share input with them on ways that they might improve their service.

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Security & Confidence

Security: 3 security questions, 2-factor authentication (emailed or texted PIN), optional security PIN, email and/or phone verification, logs you out after a 15 minutes of inactivity
Claimed Security certificates: Norton Secured, TRUSTe, Trustwave (I confirmed them.)
BBB Accredited: Yes, since 2001
BBB Rating: A+
BBB consumer rating: 🌟.1 (31 reviews)
Trust Pilot consumer rating: 🌟 🌟 🌟 (5 reviews)
Consumer Affairs consumer rating: 🌟.4 (143 reviews)
Glassdoor employee rating: 🌟 🌟 🌟 🌟.5 (61 reviews)
Indeed employee rating: 🌟 🌟 🌟.7 (18 reviews)
Google Safe Browsing: ok

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User Experience

Completion mode: Often guided, sometimes manual.
Forms: Offers tax calculator (for a tax forecast) and financial blueprint (after you have a return completed). Unfortunately, Free and Basic+ only support the minimum of forms, and some of the forms I require, especially the 8919, aren’t supported. Support chart of all versions (click on “forms”). Import completed return from some competitors for $.95. You can add notes to most lines using this and , which appears in the field you’re currently working on. You can also bookmark a page using . The forms assistant, which you navigate via folder directories, can be used to jump to whichever form you want to complete, as long as it’s part of your package. Sometimes, the path to a particular form was convoluted.
Navigation: Checklists, expandable menu on the left, sectional menus, back/continue buttons; there are also various assistants (donations, stock, forms, topics, dependents tax, TaxTutor guidance and calculators), which are dependent on which membership you have, that help you, which appear in an overlay on the screen you’re working on or in a separate window.
Interface: Sophisticated, attractive, mostly responsive, load times were slower than other sites, often significantly so. It offers to compare your return to national averages, but not for 2018. One of the best interfaces.
Helpful links to info: Yes, many .
Guarantee: TaxAct Guarantees
Maximum Refund Guarantee: “Biggest refund guaranteed with TaxAct. We guarantee that you will get your maximum tax refund if you use one of TaxAct's individual 1040 products to e-file your return. (consumer 1040 products only)”
Satisfaction Guarantee: “If you are not 100% satisfied with any TaxAct product you may discontinue using the product prior to completing the billing steps within the program.” (I.E. They only guarantee it until you pay them!)
$100K Accuracy Guarantee: “Rest assured our calculations are correct. Our accuracy guarantee is more than our word—it's backed by $100k. Because your peace of mind is priceless. (consumer 1040, 1065, 1120, and 1120S products only)”

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Test Results

Filing status: Manual choice with TaxTutor Guidance to provide information that is correct (I’d have chosen HoH if I didn’t already know).
Option to donate to Presidential Election Campaign Fund: Yes
Salary correctly indicated as employment instead of consultant income: No, because you need the deluxe version for that. I couldn’t report it as “other income” or “business income”. The only choice for me was the W-2.
Allowed me to report my full income easily: No, because you need the deluxe version for that.
SS-8 filing acknowledged: No, because you need the deluxe version for that.
Reporting missing SSI/Medicare taxes (Form 8919): No, because you need the deluxe version for that.
Leave a note to the IRS: Yes
Reporting Interest/Dividends with no 1099-INT/DIV: Yes, includes electronic import of 1099-INT/DIV from your financial institution.
Reporting healthcare: Yes
Taking Additional Child Tax Credit: Automatically, $435, but the school property tax credit was incorrect $219 (correct on summary, though: $239).
Taking EITC: Automatic, $2,170
Taking WI Homestead Tax Credit: I had to go through manually to activate it by checking yes to property taxes. $684 It didn’t give me the chance to enter the rent certificate during this, so I had to go back later when the review told me.
Errors: Incorrectly filled Milwaukee based on zip code; reported WI school property tax credit as $219 but it was $239 on the return. During the review, it warned about missing SSNs, but none were missing; about Form 2441 (Child and Dependent Care Expenses), which I don’t need; medical care insurance paid, which there was none of, and other irrelevant things.
IRS refund: $2,605
State refund: $923
States supported: It's complicated but, for the 1040, all states that require it. 2018 TaxAct Supported States
Fees: depends on tax or post-tax deadline ($1)
Customer Service: 🌟🌟 I had a hard time finding access to the customer support – it wasn’t present anywhere that I could find in my account. I finally searched on Google and this is it! 4/16/19:Request for help sent. 5/1/19: Response received The response was to the point and terse, with half of the answers being incorrect or misdirected. As a consumer, I didn't feel any warmth or empathy. 5/13/19: I received a response but it didn't answer the one remaining question I had, only said that the problems I'd pointed out would be referred to the developers. I again requested an answer.5/15/19 I received an accurate response back.
During this back-and-forth, they did email me about free support with a tax expert. I was busy with other things so I didn't pursue it.
Support types: Email

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If you see any incorrect or incomplete, or you want to comment or give feedback, please leave a comment. I had a problem with the editor blitzing some of the content when I saved it. This series of articles took me 1.5 weeks of solid work for more than 12 hours on most days. Please show your appreciation!

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