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2023 was a quiet year for the people who make tax software. As always, though, they had to incorporate changes made to the US tax code, which could affect your refund. For example, the IRS made its annual inflation adjustments for provisions like the standard deduction and tax rates. But otherwise, the changes were fairly minimal.
The limits for retirement accounts—401(k)s and IRAs—rose a bit. And 2023 is another transition year for the reporting threshold for form 1099-K. Third-party payment processors are not required to issue the form unless a businessperson received more than $20,000 and had more than 200 transactions during tax year 2023. When you use an online tax service to prepare and file your taxes, the app knows and takes into account all these changes so you don't have to even think about them.
Despite those changes, the best tax prep and filing services still try to get you the biggest refund possible. We test the self-employment versions of tax software to find out which ones are the best since so many people have taken on side gigs or are otherwise running their own businesses.
Keep reading after our top picks to find more information about key tax questions, like how to know whether you can file your taxes for free and what you need to know about paying taxes on cryptocurrency activity.
Our Top Tested Picks
Intuit TurboTax 2024 (Tax Year 2023)
H&R Block 2024 (Tax Year 2023)
FreeTaxUSA 2024 (Tax Year 2023)
TaxSlayer 2024 (Tax Year 2023)
Cash App Taxes 2024 (Tax Year 2023)
Jackson Hewitt Online 2024 (Tax Year 2023)
Liberty Tax 2024 (Tax Year 2023)
The Best Tax Software Deals This Week*
- H&R Block — Free Simple Tax Returns eFile
- Intuit TurboTax — Free Simple eFile with Expert Help
- Intuit TurboTax — $219 for Assisted, State Additional
- TaxSlayer — $22.95 for Classic Plan (Federal)
*Deals are selected by our commerce team
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- Best Accounting Software
- Best Personal Finance Software
- Best Mobile Payment Apps
Best Overall Experience
Intuit TurboTax 2024 (Tax Year 2023)
- Outstanding user experience
- Thorough, conversational interview Q&A
- Covers tax topics in exceptional depth
- Excellent help resources and virtual support options
- Great mobile apps
- Expensive
- Some help responses come from community members, not Intuit
For many years, we have ranked TurboTax among the best tax prep software because it makes doing your taxes more understandable and accessible than any competitor, increasing your chances of getting a refund. Its explanations of both simple and complex tax topics are conversational and comprehensible, and it provides multiple layers of help on its path through IRS Form 1040. Plus, it offers the best user experience of any tax software we've tested.
There’s a different version of TurboTax for every kind of taxpayer, from Gen Z and millennials who do everything on their phones to people whose financial profiles are complex enough that they need an online tax specialist. TurboTax has a version for self-employed people that's good for both longtime sole proprietors and new gig workers who don’t understand Schedule C.
Best for Context-Sensitive Help
H&R Block 2024 (Tax Year 2023)
- Always-on context-sensitive help
- Thorough, understandable explanations of tax topics
- Excellent user experience
- Tax pros answer tax questions for free
- Great mobile apps
- Navigating some sections requires excessive clicking
- Federal Accuracy Review could target error-fixing more consistently
H&R Block is a respected household name in in-person tax preparation and its DIY tax prep software lives up to that reputation. H&R Block’s numerous products and services feature user-friendly interfaces, extensive topic coverage, and context-sensitive help. The company excels at explaining tax issues in ways you can easily understand.
H&R Block’s family of tax preparation websites offers something for almost everyone, from its free version for very simple returns to its top-tier sites designed to tackle the intricacies of Schedule C (for self-employment). Its help resources are excellent and always contextual, which can be of benefit to both novice taxpayers and longtime filers as you learn whether you owe money or get a refund.
Best for Free Federal Filing
FreeTaxUSA 2024 (Tax Year 2023)
- Free federal e-filing, inexpensive state filing
- Supports all major forms and schedules
- Numerous help options
- Excellent mobile website
- Affordable professional tax support
- Can't import most 1099s
- Help pages obscure Q&A pages
FreeTaxUSA is the best free federal tax prep website (state returns cost $14.99). It has a clean, professional user interface and an understandable navigation system. Its help system and associated tools are unexpected and unusually good for a free product. The site now has an option to connect directly with a tax professional (which costs $39.99), and its mobile apps are excellent.
Since the self-employed versions of competitors’ tax prep websites can be expensive (eating into any refund you might get), FreeTaxUSA is a good choice for gig workers who don’t have a lot of income and expenses to report but who must file Schedule C. It's also good for more complex returns if you’re on a budget because of its usability, thorough coverage of tax topics, and guidance options.
Best Final Review
TaxAct 2024 (Tax Year 2023)
- Good user experience
- Excellent mobile access
- Accessible context-sensitive help
- Affordable professional tax help
- Terrific final review
- Some help links lead to IRS documents
- Search results not always targeted
- Expensive per-state filing
TaxAct is another DIY personal tax prep solution that’s been around for decades. It excels at simplicity—its user interface and navigation system help you through the complexities of the IRS tax code, and its final review is one of the best we've seen. It digs deep, asking questions about your finances that help it find all the deductions and credits that you should get.
Though it’s capable of preparing complicated tax returns, TaxAct is best used by taxpayers with simpler financial scenarios. It does a great job for W-2 employees who want to itemize in hopes of getting a refund and who don’t necessarily need the targeted support that TurboTax and H&R Block offer. It also provides a detailed walkthrough of Schedule C.
Best for Budget-Conscious Tax Filers
TaxSlayer 2024 (Tax Year 2023)
- Affordable
- Fast
- Clean interface with intuitive navigation
- Supports all major IRS forms and schedules
- Good data import options
- Little context-sensitive help on Q&A pages
- Help content quality needs work
TaxSlayer started as a tool for accountants and professional tax preparers more than 50 years ago. It’s been in the online DIY tax prep business since the 1990s. TaxSlayer has walk-throughs of common Form 1040-related topics and a searchable database of help files—improved for the current tax year—as well as guidance sprinkled throughout.
TaxSlayer’s price is lower than that of most competitors at the Classic level, aside from the free Cash App Taxes and FreeTaxUSA. TaxSlayer supports the preparation and filing of complicated financial profiles. Its target market is individuals and very small businesses whose returns require Schedule C and who want help finding all the deductions and credits they can claim to maximize their refunds.
Best Free Tax App
Cash App Taxes 2024 (Tax Year 2023)
- Free
- Pages load quickly
- Supports major IRS forms and schedules
- Simple, understandable UI and navigation
- Excellent mobile apps
- Support lacks depth
- Can't import interest or investment data
- Missing some forms and situations
- No expert tax help
- Requires a Cash App account to use
Cash App Taxes, which used to be called Credit Karma Tax, is the only service we tested that doesn't cost a dime for comprehensive federal and state preparation and filing. All major and most minor tax forms and schedules are supported. The site is fast, it has an excellent interface and navigation system, and its mobile apps are great. It offers almost everything you need to prepare the most difficult of returns—except for a robust onsite help system and access to professional help.
If you're determined to file your taxes for free, Cash App Taxes is the way to go. Ideally, it's best for people who have only W-2 income and a few deductions and credits. While it's capable of doing more, like reporting on self-employment, it doesn't offer the step-by-step data entry and guidance in areas like investment sales as other tax apps do, so it isn’t necessarily the best choice for a return requiring tons of forms and schedules. As mentioned, Cash App Taxes supports most IRS forms and tax situations, but not all. For example, you can't file in multiple states or have foreign-earned income. Be sure to check the list of what's not included here.
Best for Jackson Hewitt Clients
Jackson Hewitt Online 2024 (Tax Year 2023)
- Low price
- Comprehensive coverage of tax topics
- Proactive error checking
- Excellent final check
- Can't import a prior year's return from a competitor
- Context-sensitive, searchable help lacking in amount and quality
- User experience not on par with competitors
- Not all pages auto-save
- Some navigation quirks
Jackson Hewitt has an online DIY tax prep service, though it's best known for in-person tax preparation at its more than 5,500 locations, roughly 3,000 of which are located in Walmart stores. You can trust the company’s financial expertise and expansive coverage of tax topics in its online tax service, and the price is very reasonable at just $25, which includes both federal and state returns. Jackson Hewitt professionals are always ready to take over if you find that you can’t complete your return yourself.
We recommend Jackson Hewitt for taxpayers who have used the product before and liked it, or those who are more comfortable patronizing a company with a recognizable brand. Jackson Hewitt is also for anyone who wants a no-frills tax prep experience with backup assistance if needed as they work toward a bigger refund. Its online help tools aren't strong enough to support someone who needs a lot of handholding along the way, however.
Best for Liberty Tax Clients
Liberty Tax 2024 (Tax Year 2023)
- Pages load quickly
- Covers self-employment topics
- Great review process
- Excellent mobile access
- Expensive
- Substandard user experience
- Weak help content and little context-sensitive help
- Some atypical navigation
Liberty Tax is a competent online tax preparation service from the well-known brick-and-mortar tax preparer. Pages load fast, and its UI is simple and clean. The site offers a good review tool, and its mobile apps make it possible to complete a complex review on a smartphone—if you don’t need much help.
Liberty Tax might appeal to taxpayers who have used it before and don’t want to deal with learning a new website. It might also be a good choice for current in-person clients of Liberty Tax who want to save some money by trying to do their taxes on their own. It’s more expensive than Jackson Hewitt, though, and it lacks a state-of-the-art interface. It also doesn't have the guidance you might need if you're trying to maximize your refunds with a lot of income, credits, and deductions.
How Can I File My Taxes for Free?
Saving money on tax preparation means you get to keep more of your refund. If you want to file your taxes for free, you have a few options. First, you can go to the IRS Free File page and see if you qualify to file a free tax return there. This year, there are eight options in the IRS Free File Online program offered through a variety of partners. Each one has different criteria you must meet to qualify. To file for free, you must start your return at the IRS site, not at the partner’s site. You can record—or import, in some cases—your W-2 and some 1099 data in some of them.
For the first time, the IRS has a pilot program for people to file for free online directly without using a third-party app. To qualify, you had to have lived in one of the 12 states chosen for the program and meet a few other requirements. The states are Arizona, California, Florida, Massachusetts, Nevada, New Hampshire, New York, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Washington, and Wyoming.
Filing Your Taxes Online: What You Need to Know
Another way to prepare and file your taxes for free is to use Cash App Taxes (formerly Credit Karma Tax). It is free to file both your federal returns and one state return. This app supports most IRS forms, but a few tax situations are not included, such as estate and trust income, foreign earned income, low-income housing credit, and qualified electric vehicle credit, among others.
You can also use FreeTaxUSA, which charges nothing for federal returns but does charge $14.99 for a state return. You can buy enhanced support for an additional $7.99 and the ability to connect with tax pros for $39.99.
Other sites have free options, too, but they're limited in the forms and schedules they support. H&R Block, for example, is very generous in its free offerings among the normally paid services. It supports W-2 income, the Child Tax Credit (CTC), unemployment income, student expenses, and more for free. TaxAct allows retirement income, unemployment, and support for the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC), in addition to the W-2 and the CTC, but you must pay $39.99 per state filed. TurboTax lets you report W-2 income, the EITC, the CTC, student loan interest, and limited interest and dividend income. Using TaxSlayer, you can enter your education expenses in addition to the W-2 and other topics.
What's the Best Tax App for Self-Employment or Someone With Side Gigs?
Whether they were forced to or chose to, people began starting small businesses and taking on side gigs—think DoorDash, Lyft, or Uber—in great numbers starting in 2020. That trend has continued. According to data from the US Census Bureau, summarized by the Economic Innovation Group, 5.5 million new business applications were filed in 2023, up from the year before.
That means a lot of taxpayers will face something they’ve never encountered before on their taxes: Schedule C. Where do you turn for help if you are, say, a TikToker who needs to file as an influencer for the first time? Because professional tax preparation can be pricey, online DIY personal tax solutions are often a good option, especially if you don’t have a whole lot of income and expenses to report and you’re hoping for a refund.
If you’ve never tried using online tax services, there are three reasons this year is a good time to start. First, many changes to US tax laws haven’t made headlines because of more pressing news, which means you may not know about them. Online tax prep services are modified each year to account for changes to the tax law, so you don’t have to keep track of them all.
Second, preparing and filing online might reduce your tax obligation since these sites are trained to dig deep for deductions, hopefully boosting your refund. Online tax services are thorough and guarantee accuracy, helping you avoid being audited by the IRS. Finally, tax website developers continue to offer more ways to connect to tax professionals virtually so they can help you complete and file your return—or even take on the entire task for you.
For more on how your employment situation can affect your taxes, you can also read Independent Contractor or Employee? How the Difference Affects Your Taxes.
What's the Best Tax Software for Cryptocurrency Transactions?
How do you figure out if you need to report activity related to Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies? The short answer is that if you've used, sold, exchanged, received as payment, or mined cryptocurrency in the past tax year, all those activities need to be reported, whether or not you receive a Form 1099.
TurboTax provides the best support for reporting cryptocurrency transactions, though all sites we tested allow it. TurboTax even has a guide to cryptocurrency and your taxes.
How Does Tax Software Work?
When you prepare your income taxes using paper forms, you spend a lot of time shuttling back and forth between them. You come to a line on form 1040 that requires a supporting form or schedule, so you go there and complete it, and then transfer the number back to the 1040. Sometimes, you need to fill out a worksheet, chase down a document you got in the mail, or double-check your calculations because things just don't look right. You may have to do this many times if your return is complicated.
Online tax services work much differently. Once you create an account and fulfill the site's security requirements, you can stop worrying about which forms you need and whether your calculations are correct. You also don't need to worry about how any tax code changes are going to affect your return—and maybe your refund. That's all taken care of in the background.
When you use a digital tax preparation solution, you're really just filling out a lengthy questionnaire. These sites ask questions, and you provide answers by entering information in blank fields, selecting the correct option from a list, or clicking a button. You never have to see an actual IRS form or schedule (though in some cases, you can if you want to).
If you're familiar with tax forms, you'll probably recognize the path the tax site follows. It's patterned after the order of IRS Form 1040. Personal information comes first, and then you move on to income, deductions, credits, health insurance status, and taxes paid. After you've exhausted all the topics that apply to you, the site reviews your return and highlights potential errors or omissions that might affect your refund.
Once you've addressed any concerns, the software transfers your tax data to any state returns you must file. Then, you answer some final questions, check your entire return, and pay the service's fees (if there are any). Finally, you file your return electronically and print or otherwise save a copy for yourself.
Is There More Than One Way to Work Through the 1040?
The step-by-step data entry path tax services provide generally works quite well, as long as you work your way through your whole return without a lot of backing up or lurching forward (which some sites don't even allow). Jackson Hewitt, for example, asks whether you'd like to complete your 1040 by using its comprehensive interview. This option takes you through the entire process in one long Q&A session. It asks you about every tax topic that might apply to you.
The other option, and one every online service offers, involves selecting only the tax topics that apply to you. You choose them from a list with options such as income, deductions, credits, and taxes. When you select one, the sites walk you through a mini-interview to get the information they need. Then, they return you to the main list to choose another topic, and you repeat the process until you're finished.
The point is, no matter how you choose to proceed, all you have to do is read what's on the screen and follow the instructions. You spend most of your time responding to questions and clicking links to advance to the next screen or using the site-wide navigation tool. These sites are good guides, most of the time.
Do You Need to Read IRS Tax Forms or Instructions?
If you've ever filed a tax return, you know that understanding the IRS's forms and schedules can be challenging, and the official written instructions don't always help. The instructions are so comprehensive it's often hard to find the answer to your exact question. When you do find it, once again, the language can be difficult to decipher.
From their earliest days, personal tax software developers have sought to interpret IRS-speak and make it more understandable to the non-accountant. Some of them have written and revised their content over many years to make it as clear as possible. Services like TaxAct do more. For example, they provide hyperlinks to small help windows that further explain a term or phrase. They anticipate questions you might ask and post Q&As on especially thorny topics. They try to ensure you understand the question being asked so you give the correct answer and possibly up your refund total.
Which Tax Apps Have the Best Help Tools?
Sometimes, a friendly and understandable user experience isn't enough, so tax websites offer online assistance. Some, including H&R Block, provide context-sensitive explanations in panes attached to the main working area.
In some cases, guidance isn't available until you click a Help link. And sometimes a help link brings you to a giant database of questions and answers. You may be directed to IRS instructions and publications on a few sites, but often, the technical content has been rewritten to make it understandable.
Which Tax Apps Have the Best Professional Help?
What do you do if you can't find answers to your questions on the site? All sites offer at least one of three ways to contact the company's technical support representatives: email, phone, or chat. TaxSlayer offers all three. H&R Block and TurboTax have online communities where you can see if your problem has already been addressed. Pay attention, though, to who is posting responses. Answers from company representatives should be safe, but be sure to verify anything from a non-professional community member.
Technical support representatives cannot advise you on points of tax law, but other professionals can. Some tax prep sites offer to connect you to a tax professional via chat, phone, or screen-sharing. Everyone charges extra for this, with two exceptions. H&R Block offers unlimited professional support for free this year, and TaxSlayer Self-Employed allows you to ask a question of a tax pro by email, but it can take at least one business day to hear back.
Though it costs more in fees, you get the most innovative and comprehensive guidance if you use TurboTax Live. This service connects you with a tax professional who can work with you via video chat so he or she can often prepare your taxes in one session. They’re available for questions not only during tax season but also year-round. Professional help may increase your chances of a refund.
Can I Use a DIY Tax App If My Taxes Are Complicated?
The personal tax preparation services we review here can complete very complex tax returns. The more forms and schedules you need to complete your return, the more you typically pay. We reviewed the most expensive versions this year—those that provide tax prep tools for the self-employed and advanced topics like depreciation, rental income, and capital gains.
If you're not comfortable completing a complicated tax return but still want to give it a shot, go with H&R Block or TurboTax. H&R Block offers DIY preparation and filing, but if you get partway through and realize you're not sure of some tax issues, you can have an H&R Block tax professional review your return, complete it, share the results with you, and sign and e-file it. Or there's a version of the service where you simply upload your tax documents and let a professional take over. TurboTax has a similar service this year.
Can I Do My Taxes From My Phone?
Many of us are now used to the idea of filing our taxes on our PCs, but that’s not the only option. All the tax services we reviewed this year also let you do your taxes on your phone.
It used to be the case that you could basically only file a 1040EZ from a mobile device, but that’s no longer true. The best services now let you handle surprisingly robust returns without ever needing a full-sized computer.
How do tax services handle the transition to smaller devices? These services have dedicated Android and iPhone apps: TurboTax, H&R Block, TaxSlayer, and Cash App Taxes. These services offer mobile versions of their websites: FreeTaxUSA, Jackson Hewitt, TaxAct, and Liberty Tax.
How Can I Keep My Tax Data Secure?
Whenever you send sensitive information over a network you don't control, you should be concerned. Since taxes are nothing but sensitive data, you ought to be doubly concerned if you're filing from a coffee shop, say, or the airport. In fact, you should be concerned enough to not do it.
Fortunately, protecting your traffic is as simple as using a VPN. The best VPNs create a secure tunnel that encrypts your data, ensuring that anyone who intercepts it sees only gibberish.
Is Tax Software Safe?
Each of the tax websites we reviewed follows its own strict security protocols, as you’ll see when you read the reviews. They’re at least as safe as the sites where you do online banking. Each offers a combination of different security methods. They do things like:
Monitor the site 24/7 and perform internal checks and external tests
Employ Touch ID on their smartphone apps
Notify you of any unusual activity on your account, such as a password change, payment method update, or login from a new device
Apply industry-standard web-browsing encryption technology
Ask you to answer security questions
Filing Your Taxes Online Is Easier Than Ever
Online tax preparation and filing services can save you a lot of time and frustration compared with filing your taxes on paper. They might even help you save money by finding deductions you hadn’t considered, increasing your refund.
Tax apps and websites just keep getting better. If you’ve felt lost using a web-based tax solution in the past, consider giving it another try this year. Read our in-depth reviews and find the right service for your financial needs. You might be surprised at how easy it is to get through your taxes.
