It’s that time again. Time to get out your receipts and your calculator and fill out the old 1040 and the myriad of other tax forms required by Uncle Sam. You can visit your tax account or H&R Block to take care of it for you. All of these are reasonable choices depending on your situation. When I did a lot of work as a self-employed sound engineer I went to a tax account friend. Later after learning what he was doing I started to do it myself by hand. This was quite laborious. after a few years of that I found TurboTax software and then the website. These solutions all worked well but I have payed a lot of money over the years. What is out there that you can use for free?

The first and most obvious solution is the Cloud. The TurboTax and TaxAct websites work great on any operating system. Although they claim to be free the online filing services can cost quite a bit. I’ve never done this I believe you can print out the forms free and send them to the IRS by mail. Oh! On TurboTax only the 1040EZ is free. TaxAct and H&R Block have a better deal 1040 and 1040 Schedule A is also free. Of course you you have to pay to E-file.

There is a new player in this area that claim to be completely free. Credit Karma, where you might go to see if you can buy the house or new car is now offering to do your filing absolutely free. This is suppose to be above board with no up-sale.