- If you are looking for a premium experience
when it comes to filing your taxes on your own,
you definitely need to check out TaxSlayer in 2022.
It continues to deliver an exceptional product.
And so in this video,
I'm going to show you what it looks like
on the inside and what you can expect from TaxSlayer.
Stick around.
(inspiring music)
Hey guys, it's Justine
with the College Investor Investing
and Personal Finance for Millennials.
Now, we do a lot of reviews on tax software,
so be sure to check out all those complete walk-throughs
on thecollegeinvestor.com.
But today we are going to be talking about TaxSlayer,
which continues to deliver year after year,
premium experience without the premium price.
But first, let's answer, is TaxSlayer free?
Is there a free option for you to file your taxes?
And the short answer is yes, but it is very restrictive.
Think about it this way.
If you are a college student
and you have a simple 1040 form,
or you just graduated college,
and maybe you wanna deduct the student loan interest,
those are really the only two things
that you can get away with for filing free with TaxSlayer.
Most people are going to bump up into the paid version.
So if you want to report a health savings account,
you want that child tax credit, earned income credit,
you're going to have to bump up
into the TaxSlayer Classic version.
Now the TaxSlayer Classic version includes all forms,
deductions, and credits, and the best value for most people.
So it's going to be 17.95,
plus an additional 36.95 for each state return
that you file through the software.
So what's new in 2022 for TaxSlayer?
Well they continue to increase their navigation experience
and the user experience inside
of the software, making it really easy to use.
You also get the option of being guided
through the software or taking it under your own terms,
and if you've filed your taxes before,
you can definitely skip around,
and if you know what forms you have,
you can do it where it's self guided.
So I do appreciate that you have the option
to either go through these guided questions,
and this interview style approach inside
of the software makes it really easy
for those who are not a CPA
and don't know all of the taxes and accounting terms.
I mean, I certainly don't.
And so it made it really easy to walk through
the software using the Guided Navigation feature.
All right, so just to show you how easy it is
to use this software,
let's go ahead and hop inside the dashboard
and I'll show you how it works.
Okay, we are inside of the dashboard now.
And what I really like about TaxSlayer
is that they have cleaned up this navigation menu,
so it makes it really easy to jump back
and forth between sections.
Also, there's two different ways to experience TaxSlayer.
You can choose to be guided by answering questions,
or you can select your forms
if you've filled out your taxes before
and you know exactly what to do.
So I'm gonna show you the guided version.
No thanks.
And then you're going to see really easy prompts
as we go through the tax return.
Another thing that I really like about TaxSlayer
is that they have these Learn More buttons
that you can press.
And I find that their articles are really easy to read,
and I don't need to be an expert in filing my tax return
in order to understand what some of these forms mean.
Also, all forms are supported at the classic level,
which is what I'm in currently.
So even if you are self-employed
or you are a landlord and you have rental properties,
you can still use the Classic option,
you don't have to upgrade.
So that's a really handy feature,
and what makes this software really premium at a bargain.
Also, a Pro Support comes included with Premium.
So you can get that one-on-one advice
from a tax professional,
and you can do this over live chat or over the phone.
So if you ever need help and you're in the Classic Edition,
you can go to Help & Support,
I have a question about my taxes,
and then you can kinda go through some
of these articles here.
So here you just get a little bit more
of the benefits with the Employed package,
but you can still fill out all of these things,
which makes it really great.
Also any of those stimulus payments
that you may be missing,
if you need to get that recovery rebate credit,
that's also listed here.
The Advanced Child Tax Credit,
and the sick leave and family leave
for certain self-employed individuals.
And you can also include that here.
So I like how they had everything related
to that in one area,
and it's easily accessible from this main menu.
So I think the biggest drawbacks here,
and one that you might find a little frustrating,
is that there are no automatic imports
for W2's or 1099 forms.
So that means, if you have any of these things,
if you have stock and crypto trades
that you need to also report,
all of those things have to be entered by hand,
which can make that really tedious.
And then as I mentioned before,
Simply Free is really limited.
I mean, it really only applies to very few filers,
so if you wanna claim the child tax credit
or the earned income tax credit,
you definitely have to upgrade.
All in all, I think TaxSlayer
has done a really good job
at enhancing their user experience
from year to year.
Over the years that we've tested the software,
it just keeps getting better and better,
and you are still getting it at a bargain price,
But it's got some premium feels
like H&R Block and TurboTax without that cost.
So don't overlook TaxSlayer.
This is what it looks like on the inside.
And hopefully this helps you make a decision
on which tax software to use.
While most users are probably excluded
from the free filing option,
when you bump up into that Classic option,
you're going to get access to all those different schedules
and forms,
which makes this especially helpful
for landlords and those who are self-employed.
There are awesome calculators inside
of the dashboard that make it helpful
for landlords and self-employed people.
The other big drawback that I saw was
there was no way to automatically import your forms,
and so you had to enter those things manually.
But if that doesn't matter to you
and you still want to get
that premium feel for a bargain price,
definitely check out TaxSlayer.
We have complete walkthroughs of all
the latest and greatest tax software available
to you at thecollegeinvestor.com.