Good news: In 2019, if you made less than $69,000, you can file Federal and State income taxes for FREE.
Bad news: Google isn’t going to help you discover these services.
IRS has a Free File program, which is a decade old, yet you have never heard about it, thanks to immense lobbying by Inuit and H&R Block.
In 2019, the ProPublica investigation found that TurboTax used “ deceptive design and misleading advertising to trick lower-income Americans into paying to file their taxes, even though they are eligible to do it for free.”
Thanks to ProPublica and some congressional wrangling, IRS woke up and decided to update the free file guidelines to bar services like TurboTax and H&R Block from making it hard for taxpayers to find out if they qualify to file their taxes for free.
Still, if you Google, you will not see any direct links to free file offered by the companies that are part of the IRS free file program.
In this post, I document all free file services that let you file both Federal and State income taxes online at no cost.
If your income is less than $69,000 and you want to file Federal and State incomes taxes online for free:
- OnLine Taxes
Free Federal Return
Income between $14,000 and $69,000.
Free State Return
All States free if eligible for free Federal return. - H&R Block
Free Federal Return
Age 51 or younger.
Free State Return
All States free if eligible for free Federal return. - TaxSlayer
Free Federal Return
Age 51 or younger and U.S. Citizen or Resident Alien.
Free State Return
AR, AZ, DC, GA, IA, ID, IN, KY, MA, MI, MN, MO, MS, MT, NC, ND, NY, OR, RI, SC, VA, VT, and WV. - FileYourTaxes
Free Federal Return
Age 65 or under and income between $9,000 and $69,000.
Free State Return
IA, ID, ND, & VT. - Free 1040 Tax Return
Free Federal Return
Age 70 or younger and you live in any state except DC, FL, IN, LA, MT, NH, NM, NV, RI, SD, TN, TX, or WA.
Free State Return
CA, DE, GA, IA, ID, IL, KS, MA, ME, MN, ND, NJ, OH, RI, UT, and VA.
If your income is less than $69,000 and you want to file Federal incomes taxes online for free:
- ezTaxReturn
Free Federal Return
Income between $14,000 and $69,000 for taxpayers living in AL, AR, AZ, CA, CO, GA, IL, LA, MA, MD, MI, MO, MS, NJ, NY, NC, OH, PA, SC, VA or WI. - 1040NOW
Free Federal Return
For taxpayers living in AL, AR, AZ, CA, GA, IA, ID, KY, MI, MN, MO, MS, NC, ND, NY, OK, OR, RI, SC, VA, VT or WV.
If your income is less than $59,000 and you want to file Federal and State incomes taxes online for free:
- TaxAct
Free Federal Return
Income less than $59,000 and 56 years or younger or eligible for the EITC.
Free State Return
All States free if eligible for free Federal return.
If your income is less than $36,000 and you want to file Federal and State incomes taxes online for free:
- TurboTax
Free Federal Return
Income less than $36,000, any age, or if you qualify for EITC.
Free State Return
All States free if eligible for free Federal return. - FreeTaxUSA
Free Federal Return
Income less than $36,000 or if you qualify for EITC.
Free State Return
AR, AZ, DC, GA, IA, ID, IN, KY, MA, MI, MN, MO, MS, MT, NC, ND, NY, OR, RI, SC, VA, VT, and WV.
“Free File is meant to cover 70 percent of taxpayers, or about 37 million among the DIY returns. But only about 2.5 million people actually utilized Free File, leaving some 34.5 million eligible taxpayers that potentially incurred fees.”
– Quartz
In other words, just 7% of eligible taxpayers take advantage of the IRS free file program.
It’s time to increase this percentage.
The source of all the free file services is IRS. If you are not sure which online service you should use, you can enter your information here, and IRS will recommend one for you.
