E-file.com Overview 2024

E-file.com is a tax submitting software program program that gives intuitive steerage and a clutter-free interface designed to assist customers file their taxes shortly.  

Nevertheless, it is not straightforward to report your investment-related exercise, and whereas they provide free, restricted federal submitting, E-file.com appears overpriced at each degree. 

For these causes, we suggest staying away from E-file.com in 2024. For those who’re contemplating utilizing E-file.com to file your taxes, learn the next overview earlier than you do. Or, try how they evaluate to different main on-line tax prep firms right here: The Finest Tax Software program. 

E-file.com – Is It Free?

E-File.com has a restrictive free federal submitting possibility, however all customers need to pay for state submitting. The “Free” possibility solely consists of W-2 earnings and the Rebate Restoration Credit score. For those who reside in a state that doesn’t require a tax return and have very simple taxes, you possibly can file totally free. However that’s very uncommon.

All different credit and deductions (together with the Little one Tax Credit score and HSA contributions) require you to improve to a paid product. As a result of an amazing majority of individuals received’t qualify totally free submitting with E-file.com, it is best to consider it as a paid product.

E-file.com has made the required updates to deal with the brand new limits for tax credit and deductions for the 2023 tax yr (submitting in 2024). In any other case, it is largely unchanged from prior years. On account of IRS changes, count on new commonplace deduction limits, brackets, and different modifications all through your tax return.

The left navigation menus and kind types have improved over time, making E-file.com a straightforward tax app to navigate. Customers with easy tax returns will seemingly be capable of get their taxes carried out shortly, although buyers and anybody with extra advanced wants must take care of some monotonous kind entries.

E-file.com gives a superb consumer expertise for filers with easy tax returns. Claiming deductions and credit is comparatively easy. Many customers can discover related sections and enter info shortly. The clutter-free screens make submitting intuitive.

Nevertheless, filers with investments or self-employment earnings are prone to discover that e-file.com is much less user-friendly. Our crew of testers puzzled whether or not they have been coming into info within the appropriate packing containers. The depreciation “wizards” for actual property and enterprise have been fairly complicated since they by no means confirmed the quantity of depreciation claimed.

Inventory or crypto merchants would even be required to manually enter their trades by lengthy screens as a substitute of importing spreadsheets or importing 1099 varieties.

These are among the options that set e-file.com aside from mid-priced alternate options.

Customers can go for guided or self-guided navigation when utilizing E-file.com. Filers who really feel comfy in a single part (say Revenue) can go for self-guided navigation in that part. Then they will resume a guided possibility (together with questions and solutions) for the deductions or credit sections.

Filers who earned earnings in a number of states can file in a number of states. E-file.com costs customers on a per-state foundation, so this isn’t a very nice deal.

E-file.com’s notable drawbacks make it lower than the best product for many filers. These are among the drawbacks that potential customers ought to perceive.

E-file.com’s free tier is extremely restrictive. Filers with kids, investments, HSA contributions, unemployment earnings, scholar mortgage curiosity deductions, and another main tax scenario need to improve. However even worse, the Free tier isn’t really free in apply. Filers need to pay $22.49 to file their state return.

Many tax packages present part summaries to assist filers see their numbers. These assist filers determine whether or not they might have missed a supply of earnings or an vital deduction. E-file.com doesn’t have these summaries, making submitting harder, particularly for filers with investments.

E-file.com has just a few calculators it calls “wizards”. These wizards, which can be utilized to calculate depletion, mileage deductions, or depreciation, have been pretty complicated. They didn’t clarify the place a filer may discover sure info, and some contained unclear tax jargon.

Customers who need to obtain tech assist need to improve to E-file.com’s Deluxe tier. That is tech assist solely and doesn’t embody assist submitting taxes.

E-file.com pushes a stunning variety of folks to the “Premium” plan. The Free version is extremely restrictive, as was beforehand mentioned.

The Deluxe tier solely helps W-2 earnings, unemployment earnings, and some deductions (together with mortgage curiosity). It additionally helps the Little one Tax Credit score however is proscribed to households with lower than $100,000 in earnings. Filers with the next earnings, different types of earnings, or different deductions or credit to say need to improve to premium.

E-file.com has mid-market pricing, so we’ve in contrast it to low-cost opponents. Money App Taxes gives the very best general consumer expertise, however customers could need to use FreeTaxUSA as a result of it helps multi-state submitting. We do not anticipate filers ever discovering a selected motive to make use of E-file.com over certainly one of these inexpensive alternate options.

E-file.com makes use of knowledge encryption and multi-factor authentication to maintain consumer info protected. This ensures that the positioning meets the IRS requirements.

E-file.com has by no means reported main knowledge breaches, so it appears seemingly that the corporate upholds excessive requirements for knowledge safety. Nevertheless, no firm can assure 100% knowledge safety. Customers ought to rigorously consider any tax software program supplier earlier than opting to make use of the software program.

That is an space the place E-file.com falls quick. As talked about beforehand, until you improve to at the very least the “Deluxe” version, you will not even get entry to primary cellphone and on-line assist. No matter your plan, you will not have the choice to succeed in out to tax execs for recommendation.

Regardless of the shortage of assist, most clients on Trustpilot report optimistic experiences, and the corporate maintans an A+ ranking with the Higher Enterprise Bureau (BBB). That is seemingly as a result of e-file.com tends to draw filers who’re comfy dealing with their tax returns on their very own. However if you happen to’re in search of some hand-holding alongside the best way, e-file.com will not be the proper tax software program for you.

Why Ought to You Belief Us?

The School Investor crew spent years reviewing all the prime tax submitting choices, and our crew has private expertise with nearly all of tax software program instruments. I personally have been the lead tax software program reviewer since 2022, and have in contrast many of the main firms on {the marketplace}.

Our editor-in-chief Robert Farrington has been making an attempt and testing tax software program instruments since 2011, and has examined and tried virtually each tax submitting product. Moreover, our crew has created reviews and video walk-throughs of all the main tax preparation firms which you could find on our YouTube channel.

We’re tax DIYers and need a whole lot, similar to you. We work laborious to supply knowledgeable and trustworthy opinions on each product we check.

How Was This Product Examined?

In our authentic checks, we went by e-File.com and accomplished a real-life tax return that included W2 earnings, self-employment earnings, rental property earnings, and funding earnings. We tried to enter each piece of information and use each function out there. We then in contrast the end result to all the opposite merchandise we have examined, in addition to a tax return ready by a tax skilled.

This yr, we went again by and re-checked all of the options we initially examined, in addition to any new options. We additionally validated the pricing choices.

Who Is This For And Is It Value It?

Whereas E-file.com has a good consumer interface, the product solely works effectively for filers with comparatively simple returns. These with simple returns can discover lower-cost alternate options that work equally effectively.

However if in case you have a considerably advanced return, you will in all probability need to go for a extra sturdy various. For 2024, we suggest that the majority filers skip e-file.com. As an alternative, select the very best tax software program on your scenario.

Listed below are the solutions to a couple of the most typical questions that filers ask about E-file.com:

Can E-file.com assist me file my crypto investments?

E-file.com has assist for crypto trades, but it surely requires filling out an in depth kind for every commerce all year long. Most merchants received’t need to spend the time wanted to do that. This yr, a greater various is TurboTax Premier.

Can E-file.com assist me with state submitting in a number of states?

Sure, E-file.com helps multi-state submitting. Customers should pay $22.49 per state.

Does E-file.com provide refund advance loans?

No, E-file.com doesn’t provide refund advance loans in 2024.