- This year, OLT.com has improved navigation
and an improved interface,
but it still falls behind other leading tax software
for the 2019 year.
In this video, we're doing a complete review
and walkthrough of OLT.com tax software.
(gentle tones)
Hey, guys, welcome back to The College Investor,
investing and personal finance for Millennials.
If you've been searching for tax software to file
your 2019 taxes, you may have heard of OLT.com.
That stands for OnLine Taxes.
It is a bargain tax software and it does have
a free version.
Let's go ahead and jump into the pricing packages
and I'll show you what I mean.
Alright, so OLT.com has two versions.
There's the free edition, in which you can file a 1040.
You can do very simple or even complex returns,
it says you can do in the free edition.
The premium edition, for $7.95,
includes audit support, year over year comparison,
and a discounted state pricing.
So the state tax return in the premium version is $7.95,
whereas, if you try to do the free version,
it really isn't free.
You still have to pay $9.95 for your state tax return.
Once you know which pricing plan is right for you,
let's go ahead and hop into the tax software
and I'll show you how it works.
Okay, let's get ready to file
our federal return using OLT.com.
And remember, the state return is $9.95.
So we're gonna go with the free edition here
and see what we come up with.
You'll wanna create an account
and go ahead and add in your email address.
Then, it's gonna have a user agreement
for you to read and agree.
And then, Save & Continue.
Okay, next, you're going to fill out additional
login security questions.
There seems to be a lot of different security things
such as multi-factor authentication,
and then, the Google authentication,
and then, an optional security PIN.
So that's really nice to see that you've got
three different ways to keep things secure with OLT.com.
Okay, then, upon logging in with your email address,
you get this welcome screen.
It's pretty simple.
It doesn't look like there's a whole lot
to this navigation so far.
We'll hop into the return and see what it looks like.
Right off the bat, I noticed that there
isn't a menu or a navigation system
like I've seen on other tax software dashboards,
where there's a navigation handle where you
can click through and jump to different sections.
Right now, it's just asking me for general information.
I'll be using dummy information,
so just go ahead and follow along with me.
Okay, so I'm not quite sure what's going on
with the number of years associated up at the top
and why it would have me start my 2015 return.
So that's a little interesting to see.
I haven't seen that in other tax software.
But, right off the bat, it does say,
"Start your 2019 tax return."
So go ahead and click on that.
We'll start with the free edition
and see what we can do in the free edition.
The premium edition is that $7.95,
plus an additional $7.95 for the state tax return.
But it looks like, if you have a regular 1040,
a regular W-2, even a complex return also shows up
in the free edition.
So we'll see what we are able to do in the free edition.
Alright, here's the dashboard.
So it looks like we have the navigation system here
and a whole bunch of buttons.
And then, this screenshot,
use the menu on the left of the page
to check your progress or jump to areas
you've already been to.
I'm not sure why they did a screenshot here.
So they could've easily added some sort of popup button
or popup window to show you how to get along
with the navigation.
So that's a little interesting.
But it looks like you can take a tour.
And there's that popup box I was mentioning.
So they could've just used that and done away with this,
and I think that would've cleaned up the navigation
a little bit better.
Okay, so it looks like they've pre-filled some
of my answers to these questions except
for the healthcare information.
So it looks like I have to go ahead
and click back on this, Save & Continue,
and, in this example, I will be filing single.
This is interesting.
I haven't seen this in other tax software, either,
in which they're asking for your driver's license.
It says that the return won't be rejected,
but it's being used to combat stolen identity tax fraud.
So I don't know why adding more of my personal information
would help them combat identity tax fraud.
So this is really interesting.
I'm going to say, no,
I don't want to provide that information.
Then, they're going to give you a review
of your personal information, and Continue.
Okay, as I've updated my personal information,
I noticed that the menu just got a heck
of a lot longer.
So this looks like I am going into the actual return now,
and I'll click on W-2.
It looks like you can click on other boxes
to indicate whether or not
you've received income from investments.
So if you had a bank that paid you interest,
you would click on that.
And then, you can save and continue.
I'm not sure why it's pre-filling done
with W-2 category because I haven't even added that yet.
So I'll click Add a New W-2.
And then, here, it doesn't look like I have
an option to import a W-2 PDF,
so you'll have to enter it in manually.
So in my W-2 example, my social security wages
are different than my regular wage income.
But I see that it's already pre-filled
some of this information for me already,
which is not really helpful because
it's inaccurate according to what I have stated on my W-2.
So just be aware that they're pre-filling
for some reason and it's not accurate.
Well, now, it's showing up accurate,
so this is a little weird.
Interesting.
On my W-2, it says that my federal wages were $53,725,
but total state wages were $53,724,
which is what I had on my W-2.
So it's interesting that they've flagged that.
I'll go ahead and click Save & Continue
just to keep going and see what they come up with.
I don't like how they've pre-filled the answers for you
because you could just be clicking Continue
without really reading the question first.
So it would be nice if these weren't pre-filled
and you were forced to answer yes or no
on some of these questions.
Okay, I'm still in the Income and Earnings Section.
It looks like there are different forms
that I can fill out, and then, click on Start.
And then, you'll wanna add new forms
as you have them.
Okay, if none of these other income investment forms
apply to you, you can click Done with Investment Income.
And then, you'll be greeting with an income summary screen.
If there's anything that you need to show, Show More.
It looks like you can go through some
of these different forms.
Let's click on Where do I enter.
Let's say we had student loan (mumbling),
student loan interest deduction form.
So I had a 1098-E.
I'll go ahead and say I wanna add that.
So it's updating my refund amount up here.
I don't know if I'm particularly fond
of how the dashboard looks.
It looks pretty outdated, in my opinion.
This could be an easy fix if they worked
with a web developer to update this.
Otherwise, I'm gonna click Done with Income Summary,
and then, move on to adjustments.
So I'd already indicated that I had student loan interest.
I wonder if it'll already have, yes,
it already has the pre-filled information.
I'll say, Done with Adjustments.
This is a little confusing compared
to other tax software that I've been in.
So it says, "Which of these deductions applied to you
"in tax year 2019?"
I didn't have any of these in my example.
It almost seems like there's too many options
to click here when, in other cases,
they'll show you what the standard deduction is,
and then, what the itemized deduction is.
And this seems a little confusing.
Also, it just says Skip this step.
So now, I'm really confused on what to do.
It almost seems optional.
Deduction checklist.
Taxes I paid.
I didn't have any of these credit,
so I'll skip this step, I guess.
And then, it's going to show me
the complete list of credits.
I'll click Done with Credit Summary.
If you were new to filing your taxes,
it almost feels like you have to go through
each of these one by one.
You don't have to.
You can click Done with Taxes Summary and skip it.
But I think this would allow for a lot of air.
So if you're filing your taxes for the first time,
it doesn't seem like OLT.com would be
the most beneficial because it can be very confusing
to figure out where exactly you need to go next.
Okay, then these are the miscellaneous forms.
If any of these have applied to you,
you would click on Start and fill it out.
So go through them one by one.
If you don't have any of these forms,
then you would click Save & Continue Return.
Alright, so now, we're at the summary screen
for the federal tax summary.
This is all the information that I input here.
And then, what their potential refund amount would be.
Then, it'll ask you how you wanna receive your refund.
And then, I think you can go ahead
and go into the state return.
Then, you can e-file your return.
And this is interesting.
For the self-select PIN,
it's asking me to type in my prior year
adjusted gross income and the prior year
five-digit self-selected PIN.
If you don't have that information,
it says, "your e-file submission will be rejected
"by the IRS if they are incorrect."
So I don't even think this is a way
that you can skip this other than,
if you didn't file in 2019, then you would put a zero in.
Yep, so they're not going to let you
move forward unless you have these two things,
which is kind of a bummer.
I didn't have this issue with other tax software.
So this definitely can hose things up for you
if you don't have this information.
And it's all the way at the end.
So after you put in all of your tax information and,
if you get to this point
and you don't have this information,
it seems like you're just out of luck
when it comes to filing with OLT.com.
Alright, let's revisit the state tax return.
I wasn't aware that I had even started it.
So I'm gonna click Save & Continue.
Then, here are all the other state forms.
If none of these apply to you,
it looks like you can just click Done
with the adjustments section.
And then, the taxes section, Special Credits,
and then, other credits.
Oh, my gosh, there seems to be
a lot to look at here in terms
of how many forms there are on the state side,
which is a little different than what I've seen
in other software.
Alright, so then, it's showing me a summary
of my state taxes.
I'd get a potential refund of $412.
And then, you can e-file the return.
And then, you get to this quick summary page here
that says, "The IRS will be to accept returns
"on January 28th, 2020."
So when you get to this point,
you can log back in and click to file your return.
It's super-cheap.
This is one of the cheapest ones out here.
However, with the clunkiness of this software,
and I didn't really feel like it was user-friendly,
you might look elsewhere.
Overall, OLT.com was pretty cumbersome to use.
While the search functionality was really nice,
there was just too much text and tax jargon
for me to understand.
If you're looking for a bargain
on your tax software, then you might consider
looking at TaxSlayer or TaxHawk.
We have reviews on those and they just seemed
a lot easier to go through versus something like OLT.com.
If you want to go premium,
then take a look at H&R Block or TurboTax.
You're going to get a fancier interface than OLT.com.
They just seem to fall behind on our list of tax reviews.
And remember, if you are looking for free options,
H&R Block and TurboTax still offer free options for you.
So you'll wanna check those out, as well.
For more information on tax reviews
for the 2019-2020 year,
be sure to check out thecollegeinvestor.com.