- All right, it's that time again.
If you are searching for good tax software
to file your taxes in 2022, we are highlighting TaxHawk,
a low cost tech software that might be right for you.
Stick around.
(gentle music)
Hey, what's up guys.
This is Justine with The College Investor.
Investing and personal finance for millennials.
Today we are talking about TaxHawk.
We are doing a review of the tax software
to see whether or not it's right for you.
So let's go ahead and jump into the first question.
TaxHawk, is it really free?
Now, your federal filing within this software is free.
However, your state filing is 14.99.
So this isn't a completely free tax software,
but it is low cost compared to other premium tax software,
like H&R Block or TurboTax.
So what's new in 2022 for TaxHawk?
Well, they've made some improvements in their navigation,
and what I really liked about TaxHawk
when I was testing out their software
is that if I missed anything,
they were quick to kind of give me
some yellow cautionary signs to say,
hey, you didn't fill this out.
That's not wrong, but it's unusual,
maybe you need to go back.
And I found that to be really helpful
because it was right in front of my face.
And I could see where I needed to go back and fix things.
Also, their menu navigation is pretty simple to use.
There's no bells and whistles.
I found that I was able to navigate
through all of the different major subsections
of my tax return, which made it helpful to get through
some complex filing situations.
Okay, let me go ahead and take you
inside of the TaxHawk software
and it'll show you how it works.
All right, so this is what it looks like
inside of the TaxHawk dashboard.
If you have been reviewing tax software with us,
you will notice that this looks very similar to FreeTaxUSA,
almost identical on the inside.
And they have identical pricing,
but let's go over some of the notable features.
Each section is labeled clearly up at the top.
When you go through a section,
you are going to see a little summary page at the end.
But you're going to want to do this in sequential order
because you can't click around
and jump around to the different sections.
So I do appreciate that, that it keeps you on task.
After you fill out your personal information,
you're going to see
some of these different support features.
So these are some notable features you'll want to look at,
such as getting texted by from a CPA or EA.
And that's going to be an upgrade of 24.99.
So you get the help of a CPA,
get your tax questions answered,
could be a good deal for you.
Now, if you are just wanting some live chat and support,
you can do that here for 6.99.
This is kind of the deluxe upgrade.
And you also get the audit assist here.
These are some features that you might want to consider
if you are doing TaxHawk.
Otherwise, you can just do a step-by-step guide here,
save and continue,
and then go throughout your tax return.
One of the notable drawbacks that we noticed
as we were testing this
is that when you go to add in a tax form,
there is no ability to import those tax forms automatically.
In other words,
we have to fill this out manually
and that could leave a margin of error.
If you are inputting different numbers from your W-2,
even if you just get one number off,
that could really throw off your federal and state returns.
So that is a drawback and also kind of time consuming,
if you think about it.
You have to fill out all of this information
for one W-2 form.
And if you have multiple forms,
this could take you a long time to fill out.
What I do like about TaxHawk though,
is that you get to see your federal refund
or the federal amount that you owe up here
in the upper right hand corner.
So that will change as you fill out more forms
and take deductions or credits.
Another notable feature here
is that you have these nice summary sections
at the end of each major section of your tax return,
so that you can quickly see what's been filled out,
what hasn't been filled out.
And then you can actually go back to something
and fill it in if you need to.
And then if you ever need to go back to where you started,
you can just click the dropdown menu
and take you back over to the income summary.
And then it's going to continue on into the next section.
All right, so for TaxHawk,
it is free to file your federal return.
Your state return is going to cost a 14.99.
So it is a good bargain tax software
if you are considering this as kind of a middleman.
However,
you are going to want to make sure that you understand
how to jump through the sections clearly.
There is kind of this Q&A menu navigation,
but if you don't take the time
to actually read through everything, this could trip you up,
especially if you're a first-time filer
or not used to filing your taxes on your own.
You could see here
where most people may take a standard deduction,
it may appear like you have to fill out
the itemized deduction sections when you don't need to,
you can actually click continue.
However, you could be tripped up
and think you have to start all of these things,
since these are forms that you haven't visited yet.
Otherwise, the dashboard is very clean.
It's no bells and whistles, no frills.
You do get to see your refund or amount owed fluctuate
as you fill out more of your return.
The little summary sections are really nice.
However, if this is your first time filing,
you may find that it can be a little confusing.
But that's a quick rundown of what it looks like
inside of TaxHawk.
So TaxHawk have made some improvements to their navigation,
which makes it a top contender
if you're looking for some bargain tax software.
But you'll see, if you are doing the side by side comparison
of TaxHawk and FreeTaxUSA, they are pretty much identical.
So I don't think you could really get a different experience
from one or another.
You're going to find
that you'll be able to do very similar things
in both software.
Also, side hustlers, rental property owners,
and people who need to file in multiple states
will probably see a lot of value
in using something like TaxHawk.
Now, if you still haven't made up your mind
about which tax software you want to use,
don't forget we have complete reviews
and guided walkthroughs of all of the latest and greatest
in tax software available to you at thecollegeinvestor.com.