FreeTaxUSA Review: $0 Federal Filing, $15.99 per State
By the Finder's Forge Editorial Team
Facts checked
Affiliate Disclosure: We may earn a commission if you purchase through our links, but the commission does not decide our verdict (how we make money). Any income or results this product references are not typical and not guaranteed. See our Earnings Disclaimer. Written by the Finder's Forge Editorial Team. This is editorial research, not a first-hand test and not personalized advice.
- Best for
- Filers in the United States, including freelancers and small-business owners, who are comfortable doing their own return and want federal filing at no cost.
- Skip if
- Anyone filing from outside the United States, reporting foreign employment income or filing a nonresident alien return, or anyone who wants a tax professional to prepare the return
- Starting price
- Not stated in this reviewCheck the provider's own page for current plans.
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Our verdict
Verdict publishedFreeTaxUSA fits a filer who will prepare their own return and wants to pay little for it: $0 federal and $15.99 per state for 2025 returns. Pay by card to avoid the $24.99 refund-payment fee, and skip any add-on you can't explain. If you live abroad or want someone else to prepare the return, look elsewhere.
Worth a look if
- Filers in the United States, including freelancers and small-business owners, who are comfortable doing their own return and want federal filing at no cost.
Skip it if
- Anyone filing from outside the United States, reporting foreign employment income or filing a nonresident alien return, or anyone who wants a tax professional to prepare the return
Need a Different Fit?
If the skip list sounds like you, start with one of these.
You are still deciding whether to pay
1-800Accountant Alternatives: Four Other Ways to Get Your Business Taxes DoneYou want one more Money Skills option
Read our WalletHub Premium reviewGo to WalletHub Premium (paid link)
Deal-breakers to check first
- Paying with your refund instead of a card adds a $24.99 fee
- Amended returns cost $16.98 unless you bought Deluxe or Pro Support
- It can't file foreign employment income, nonresident alien returns, or returns for filers living outside the United States
- You prepare the return yourself; help from a tax professional costs $64.99 with Pro Support
- Audit Defense is help with the audit; the page does not say it pays tax you end up owing
- We did not test the software, so ease of use is unchecked
What we checked
What works
Federal returns are $0 on every tier, including Self-Employed
Checked Oct 20, 2026
What works
Each state return is a flat $15.99
Checked Oct 20, 2026
What works
Tax extensions are free
Checked Oct 20, 2026
What works
Audit Defense covers the federal return for 3 years and the state return for 4, for $19.99
Checked Oct 20, 2026
What works
You can import last year's return as a PDF from another tax program
Checked Oct 20, 2026
What works
You can download a copy of your return to print at no cost
Checked Oct 20, 2026
What it is
FreeTaxUSA is tax software you use to prepare and file your own return. Its pricing page, checked on 20 October 2026, lists 2025 federal returns at $0 on every tier: Basic, Advanced, Premium (rental income, investments, sale of a home) and Self-Employed (freelancers, small businesses, contractors). Each state return is $15.99, and a tax extension is free. The support upgrades are optional. Deluxe Support is $7.99 and adds live chat, priority help and unlimited amended returns. Pro Support is $64.99 and gives you a tax professional by phone or chat, plus a final review of your return. Without either one, an amended return costs $16.98. Audit Defense is $19.99. FreeTaxUSA says a team of certified public accountants and enrolled agents will handle an IRS or state notice for you, covering the federal return for 3 years and the state return for 4. If you end up owing more, the page says a tax-debt specialist will work to reduce it; it does not say Audit Defense pays the bill. How you pay changes the total. Paying by card costs nothing extra. Having the fees taken out of your federal refund adds $24.99. Prior-year returns back to 2018 are $0 federal and $17.99 per state. You can import last year's return as a PDF from another tax program, and photograph or upload your W-2 and 1099 forms. TaxHawk, the Provo, Utah company behind FreeTaxUSA, has been accredited by the Better Business Bureau since October 2005. FreeTaxUSA says it has filed more than 82 million returns; that is the company's own figure, not one we could check. The pricing page lists what it can't file: foreign employment income (Form 2555), nonresident alien returns (Form 1040-NR), filers living outside the United States, at-risk limits (Form 6198) and some publicly traded partnership K-1s. We did not test the software.
Checked Oct 20, 2026
Next step
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How we make money
Finders Forge LLC is paid a commission by some companies we review, through the affiliate networks Awin, CJ and Impact. We are paid only when someone buys through our link.
We publish the products we would skip, too. No company can pay for a better verdict.
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How We Evaluate
Every published product goes through our three-gate selection rubric and five-criteria weighted scorecard. The gates are pass/fail: the product must help you make, keep, grow or understand money; it must use a real affiliate-network link; and it must be sold on what it does for the buyer, not on recruiting affiliates. Most candidates do not clear that bar.
We check published pricing pages, provider terms, and regulatory and BBB records. We do not test the products ourselves. The questions below are what the scorecard looks for. Full detail is in our Editorial Standards.
Value for price
Does the product deliver enough real capability or outcome to justify what it costs, compared to what a buyer could get elsewhere in the same category?
Fit for the buyer
Who genuinely benefits from this, and who doesn't — the "best for" and "not a good fit if" lines above reflect this directly, not a one-size-fits-all recommendation.
Vendor trustworthiness
We read the provider's published terms and check regulatory and BBB records for signs that the seller's claims do not hold up.
Commission is a tie-breaker, never the selector
When two products score closely, commission can break the tie. It never determines whether a product clears our bar in the first place.
Pricing transparency
Is a number on this page the price, or our cut?
Any plan price quoted on this page for FreeTaxUSA is the provider's own published price on the date we checked it, not what we earn. Our commission is not the price, and we never show it as one. Confirm the current price on the provider's site before you pay.
How we check pricing transparencyCompare with alternatives
Other picks in Money Skills, each reviewed independently.
Tie-breaker
Compare the total for your federal and state returns on each product's own pricing page before you pick. If you want someone else to prepare the return, a local certified public accountant or enrolled agent is the better fit.
| Product | Buyer score | Price | Best For | Action |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| FreeTaxUSA This review | Reviewed | — | Filers in the United States, including freelancers and small-business owners, who are comfortable doing their own return and want federal filing at no cost. | Go to FreeTaxUSA |
| WalletHub | Not yet rated | — | US readers who want to look at their credit score and track spending and subscriptions in one place. | Go to WalletHub |
| WalletHub Premium | Not yet rated | — | US readers who want credit monitoring, identity theft tools and budgeting from one account, and who will check the terms first. | Go to WalletHub Premium |
Filers in the United States, including freelancers and small-business owners, who are comfortable doing their own return and want federal filing at no cost.
Go to FreeTaxUSAUS readers who want to look at their credit score and track spending and subscriptions in one place.
Go to WalletHubUS readers who want credit monitoring, identity theft tools and budgeting from one account, and who will check the terms first.
Go to WalletHub PremiumRelated guides
FreeTaxUSA — Reader Questions
Is this review independent?
Yes. Finder's Forge does not accept payment in exchange for favorable coverage. We earn an affiliate commission only when a reader chooses to buy through our outbound link, at no additional cost to the reader. Our editorial verdict and our worth-a-look and skip-it lists are set before any commercial terms are negotiated with the partner.
Does clicking an affiliate link cost me anything extra?
No. Affiliate links route through a tracking redirect so the partner knows we referred you, but the final price you pay is identical to what you'd pay visiting the partner's site directly. Any discount codes we surface are the best we could negotiate or find publicly — you never pay a surcharge for using our link.
How do you choose which products to review?
We prioritize categories where buyers lose the most money making a bad choice — high-ticket items, long-commitment subscriptions, and products where results depend on matching the right tool to the buyer. Within a category we survey the top-selling options, evaluate each against our rubric (quality, value, fit), and publish only the ones we'd actually recommend.
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