Review of IRS-Authorized E-Filer ezTaxReturn.com®, LLC 🌟🌟🌟

reveurgam (60)in #review • 5 years ago (edited)

This is my review of the 2018 IRS-Authorized tax e-filer, ezTaxReturn. 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.

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.

ezTaxReturn

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ezTaxReturn.com®, LLC
Garden City, NY
Summary: Recommended for federal returns only; their State chart doesn't admit that some states with free filing offer that, and customer service doesn't care, and the State section is entirely questions, no menus, so you can't try to manually override mistakes it made. Almost no errors, easy to use, but customer service experience is lacking. Also, the Homestead Tax Credit may not be supported for your state (it isn't for WI).

Security & Confidence

Security: 3 security questions, optional 2-factor authentication (requires Google Authenticator, a free app ), times out if you click on the "Home" link, it logs you out automatically after about 10 minutes.
Claimed Security certificates: digicert, TRUSTe
BBB Accredited: Yes, 2011
BBB Rating: A+
BBB consumer rating: 🌟 (15 reviews)
Trust Pilot consumer rating: - (0 reviews)
Consumer Affairs consumer rating: - (0 reviews)
Glassdoor employee rating: 🌟 🌟 🌟 🌟 🌟 (3 reviews)
Indeed employee rating: 🌟 🌟 🌟 🌟 🌟 (1 reviews)
Google Safe Browsing: ok

User Experience

Completion mode: Guided or self-guided
Forms: Since I couldn't report my income correct, and put it as other, I couldn't get the EIC and additional child credit. Once I put in the 1099-MISC, though, I could, as well as with the W-2. There was no way to try to force the site to give me Wisconsin rent and EIC credits. Customer service admitted that WI Schedule H isn't supported.
Navigation: Back/continue button (back button tends to erase everything on previous screen), drop-down menus for completed areas. State has no menu and no way to edit specific entries. State navigation is questions only.
Interface: Comfortable, fairly sophisticated, easy to use, responsive. Unfortunately, if you go back to a previous area, it grays out the area menus after that, so you have go through again. The state interface has no menu.
Helpful links to info: Many
Guarantee: There are implied guarantees for speed, accuracy, etc., but this was all that was stated, which is interesting for a company that's been doing this since 1999.
Calculation Guarantee: "If you are a registered user, and you pay a penalty or interest imposed by IRS resulting from a calculation error on a form prepared and e-filed using ezTaxReturn.com, and not as a result of your failure to enter all required information accurately, willful or fraudulent omission or inclusion of information on your tax return, misclassification of information on your tax return, or failure to file an amended return to avoid or reduce an applicable penalty/interest, then ezTaxReturn.com will pay you in the amount of the IRS penalty and/or interest paid by you to the IRS."

Test Results

Filing status: You must choose; it doesn't mention about aliens for widow(er).
Option to donate to Presidential Election Campaign Fund: Yes
Salary correctly indicated as employment instead of consultant income: No, I had to file it as "other income", then tried it as "business income" (1099-MISC). This resulted in taxes of $382, but it also resulted in reduced EIC, and Additional Child Credit, and no Wisconsin EIC and Homestead Tax Credit. I then tried the W-2.
Allowed me to report my full income easily: Yes, when I reported it as "business income", but it was not the correct solution. Yes, on the W-2.
SS-8 filing acknowledged: No
Reporting missing SSI/Medicare taxes (Form 8919): No
Leave a note to the IRS: No
Reporting Interest/Dividends with no 1099-INT/DIV: Yes
Reporting healthcare: Yes
Taking Additional Child Tax Credit: No with "other income", yes for "business income", but only $378. Once I used the W-2 it became $435.
Taking EITC: No with "other income", yes for "business income", but only $384. On W-2 it became $415 (from the 0 children column instead of 2). Once I used the W-2 it became $2,170.
Taking WI Homestead Tax Credit: No, couldn't even try to force it.
Errors: I wasn't granted WI credits I should've gotten.
IRS refund: $0 with "other income", then I owed $1 with "business income". Once I used the W-2 it became $2,605.
State refund: $0 (note that they don't support part-year residence) using "other" and "business". Once I used the W-2 it became $239 (EIC - no Homestead Credit). $923 once I resolved the HC issue.
States supported: AL, AR, AZ, CA, CO, GA, IL, LA, MA, MD, MI, MO, MS, NJ, NY, NC, OH, PA, SC, VA, WI
States not supported: Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Minnesota, Montana, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, West Virginia
Fees: $19.95 each for federal return if your state isn't on the list, and for all state returns.
Customer Service: 🌟🌟My request for help was responded to incorrectly and they did not honor my phone callback request. I then got a response that explained the income options I'd already explored, and offered a callback if I still wanted one. The next day, another response to my question about whether the problem with the Homestead Tax Credit is limited to WI or affects other states simply stated: "A vast majority of states have the homestead tax credit.", and I later got a response that claimed this site doesn't support WI Sched. H! Apparently, email sent in is either not connected to prior emails on the same topic, or they just don't bother to look at that context. Turn-around on requests for help took 2-4 hours, except for the one that I sent in after 10 PM.
Support types: Email, phone callback (by request, if they want to)

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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