- Okay, let's talk about TaxAct
for the 2022 tax return season,
because you may wanna avoid TaxAct all together.
I'm going to tell you why,
some notable features and drawbacks of this software.
Ultimately it was a little disappointing.
We'll check it out in this video.
(gentle music)
Hey guys, it's Justine with the College Investor,
investing and personal finance for millennials.
So if you're watching this video,
I assume you might be interested in using TaxAct
as your preferred tax software
when you go to file your federal and state returns.
However, there are some things that you just need to know
for the 2022 tax return season.
First let's answer this question, is TaxAct really free?
And this is the kicker this year is that they got rid
of their completely free filing offering.
And now, while you can file your federal tax return,
in some instances, you will have to pay 39.95
per state return.
Now on the federal filing side, if you have W2 income,
unemployment income or income from social security,
that does apply towards the free federal version.
You can also claim the childcare tax credit,
your stimulus payments all within
that federal version as well,
but again, once you file your state return,
you're going to have to pay about $40 to file that.
So there really is no free option with TaxAct anymore.
So what's new in 2022?
Well, the big thing that I mentioned
along with the free stuff
is that there is no free version anymore,
that's probably the biggest move
that they've made since last year.
And then also if you end up going with this software,
we actually did find a positive here.
They did improve their usability just a tiny bit
on the inside of the dashboard
and they had a really helpful side menu that I found
just to kinda clean up and organize your tax return
so that you can toggle back and forth between sections.
In fact, let's go ahead and check out
inside of the dashboard for TaxAct.
I'll show you some of the features and the drawbacks.
So this is what it looks like on the inside
of the TaxAct dashboard.
And one thing that you'll want to note here
that's been an upgraded feature for 2022
is that they have improved their navigational system
here on the left-hand menu so that you can see
all of the different sub-sections here
and kind of toggle back and forth between the sections.
So each section is really clearly marked here
right in the middle.
You can go through each of the different topics,
review and then click open this,
and then you can add forms here.
And speaking of adding forms, another thing that's new
is that not only can you still upload and import W2 files,
but you can now import 1099B forms from brokerages,
or you can upload a CSV file from brokerages.
So that's really handy and can be a big time time-saver
in the TaxAct software.
Now you're also going to see this really
kind of easy question and answer guidance.
So when I went to the W2 section here, it says,
depending on the employer's EIN,
we may be able to import your W2 from your payroll provider,
which again is going to save you a ton of time.
And again, here you can even just take a picture of your W2
and then you can even get the link sent directly
to your phone, you can also scan a QR code,
which makes this really easy to use
as technology is upgraded.
So here's an example of that really helpful question
and answer guidance.
So it just has really simple to follow language.
I'm going through the health savings account portion
right here and it's just asking some more questions
about how I was able to apply those contributions
and deductions and says, was yourself an eligible individual
with the same type of coverage?
Yes. Continue.
So this is pretty helpful in terms of making it simple,
easy to follow.
So now you can see, I actually manually entered in the W2,
but you can also take a picture of it.
I just didn't see a really easy way to upload
and maybe I just missed that,
but I didn't see really an easy way
to upload my PDF into the system.
So I guess that would be one of the notable drawbacks
is I couldn't really find a way to import that
from a PDF file.
Also, I think the biggest pain in what I've mentioned
with the pricing is that it's high cost
given the functionalities.
So it's kind of up there with H&R Block and TurboTax
in terms of pricing, but for user experience,
you're gonna be better off using TurboTax
if you want that premium feel with the premium price
or H&R Block.
So TaxAct has the pricing of a premium software,
but really it should be,
it feels more of like a bargain tax software category.
So on the inside, it's relatively easy to follow,
but again, the user experience just isn't quite the same
as what I've seen in TurboTax.
I do find it nice that they have
this little help center bar here that you can go
and toggle back and forth between,
you can even exit out of it and then get back quickly
by clicking this help button up at the top.
Again, this left-hand menu is really nice,
but I think the biggest drawback is it just doesn't have
that premium feel for the premium price.
And that's a quick look inside of the TaxAct dashboard.
All right, the biggest takeaway here with TaxAct
is that it comes with a premium price
with a bargain style software on the inside.
So really you would be better off
if you wanna go with the premium route,
going with something like H&R Block or TurboTax
if you want that premium user experience on the inside,
because you're pretty much paying the same amount
with those software versus what you get with TaxAct.
So if you want to go the bargain route,
which really this should be priced as a bargain software,
then you're better off at looking at tax software
like TaxHawk or TaxSlayer.
And TaxAct really just didn't wow me anyways.
There is nothing that really caught my attention
that said, oh, this is really helpful.
When I look at things like TurboTax or H&R Block,
that really has the wow factor and you're also paying more.
But if you know how to do your tax returns right,
you've had some experience with it,
take a look at TaxSlayer or TaxHawk.
Don't forget, we have complete reviews
of all the tax software that I've mentioned in this video.
Be sure to check all of those out at thecollegeinvestor.com.