- If you were looking for completely free tax filing
for 2022, then you definitely wanna check out
Cash App Taxes, formerly known as Credit Karma Taxes.
So there are a couple of upgrades and changes
that you'll want to be aware of.
Stick around, we'll be going through a complete review
of Cash App Taxes in this video.
Hey guys, it's Justine with The College Investor
investing in personal finance
for millennials Cash App Taxes,
which used to be Credit Karma Taxes.
It's still one of our top tax software
that we got to review this year.
And I want to start off with this video
on how to log in to Cash App Taxes,
because this is kind of a barrier.
If you can get it set up and log into the app
and then log into your computers to do your taxes,
you're set.
So let's go over how to do this.
So I'm gonna pull up my app here
so that you can follow along with me.
So feel free to pause this video,
if you wanna go ahead and set this up.
First, you're going to open up
the Cash App Phone, download it.
And then you're going to see down here at the home button,
the little home icon.
When you scroll down, there's going to be
this line that says free tax filing,
estimate your 2021 refund.
So then you can click file now,
continue, log in with your email address.
And then it's going to send you a code
to your email address.
I'm gonna add that in here.
863.
Got it.
And then it's also going to send a code to your phone.
So there's multi-factor authentication,
which is actually a good thing
when you're talking about your tax return,
because identity theft has gone crazy the past few years,
especially when it comes to your tax return.
So you'll wanna make sure that you are with a tax software
that has this type of security added.
So now I'm going to enter my name in some identity stuff
to make sure that I'm really me.
And it pretty much looks like I have unlocked everything
from my phone.
Stumbling into some roadblocks here,
but you are going to have to scan a QR code on your phone,
log in with your phone and then come back to your laptop.
So again, this is the big barrier with Cash App Taxes.
And so that's why I wanted to highlight it,
to make sure that you guys know exactly
how to get in because it's worth it,
because it's completely free.
So let's go ahead and log in.
And now it says I should be switched back to my computer
and I'm back in,
and this is where you can start filling out your tax return.
I find it a lot easier to use my laptop
when I'm thinking about different forms that I need to input
into a tax software,
doing it on my computer versus my phone is way easier.
So we've answered the question that cash app is really free.
Credit Karma Taxes was also free last year,
and so is the same software,
but I wanna tell you about a couple of changes
that happened for 2022.
Along with the name change and the changing of hands here,
there were a couple of downgrades that we noticed.
The first thing and one of the biggest things
that you'll wanna be aware of,
is that Cash App Taxes does not support
automatic imports of your tax forms, which is a huge bummer.
You have to manually enter in your information.
So as you are getting your tax forms,
you're going to have to manually enter that information,
which could leave room for error.
Also, we noticed that the product didn't pick up
any over contributions that we may have made
through a self-employed 401k plan.
And so usually those things are red flagged right away.
And we didn't see that with this software,
so that's something that you'll wanna pay attention to.
If you have an eye for detail, it won't matter to you.
But if this is something that you aren't familiar with,
it could trip you up.
Now that we are completely logged in,
let's go ahead and hop inside the dashboard
and I'll show you what it looks like.
Here we are in the dashboard.
So one of the notable features
is the requirement of multifactor authentication.
So before I could even get into this window,
I actually had to scan a QR code with my phone
as I mentioned before, in order to log in.
And you're going to have to do that pretty much any time
you need to log into the software.
So either it's a feature or a drawback,
but I think the main point here,
is that having a second form of authentication
is really good practice that few other companies offer.
As I was going through my filing experience here,
they really do customize the software,
according to what your needs are.
So in the beginning, I filled out some basic information
and this really does streamline that processes,
so it basically gets you to the content
and the documents that pertain to your tax filing situation.
Just a quick rundown of what this looks like,
because a lot of the tax software that I have tested
have a menu navigation right here on the left-hand side,
but everything here is streamlined in Cash App Taxes.
This is the same basic function
and user experience as what it was last year
under the credit karma name.
It's nice.
It has the different sections that you can go
and peruse through.
You can see what sections I have started,
such as the self-employed stuff.
And what things that I still need to look into
such as savings and interest.
And so the way that they have you go through this
is very guided.
And I like that when you go to hit start,
because I did say I had interest that I earned,
that you can add in a new interest form.
And it's super nice.
So they'll take it section by section,
or you can toggle to this single page view
in which you'll have all of the different form sections
for one form in one view.
So you can kind of scroll through
and as you're looking back and forth
between your 1099 form, and what's here on Cash App,
you make sure that you have all of your boxes
filled out correctly.
There's even these nice little green eye icons
where it can tell you a little bit more
about what they're asking for in that particular box.
One of the drawbacks here though,
is that you can't import these forms.
So if you have a PDF that you downloaded
from, let's say Robin Hood or some other brokerage account,
and you wanna upload that into Cash App Taxes,
that's just not possible.
You have to manually enter in these numbers
and if you have a lot of different forms,
this can be very time-consuming.
To get to their help center,
you just click on this little three dot button
and it'll pull up a different window
that says tax help center.
And then you can peruse through their knowledge base
and their different articles here if you ever need a help.
One cool thing about Cash App too,
is that they offer free audit support.
So if there is a chance that you get associated
with an audit, the support is included here with Cash App.
Also, I like this handy button up at the top
that gives you a summary of your taxes so far.
So it's gonna show you exactly how
these things were calculated,
any kind of taxes owed, credits and withholdings,
and then any possible refund that you might have.
So there you go.
Make it even sweeter or free audit defense,
no head and filing fees, accurate calculations,
all that good stuff is right here in Cash App.
I think this is a simplistic way to do your taxes.
It's not clunky.
It's very straight to the point.
Cash App Taxes actually is pretty robust
considering it's a completely free software.
Now it's not the premium, feel like a TurboTax
or an H and R Block,
but it is way better than some of these bargains software
that still charge a fee to use their services.
Such as Free Tax USA, which costs 15 bucks to file.
This is going to be a better experience
and you won't have to pay a fee to use it.
So that's why Cash App makes our top lists
of tax software to check out for 2022.
If you are still trying to figure out which software to use,
don't forget, we have complete walkthroughs and reviews
of all the latest and greatest tech software
at thecollegeinvestor.com.
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