Is TurboTax reliable and trustworthy for filing my 2025 taxes?

I've been using TurboTax for about 8 years now and it's generally reliable. The interface is user-friendly and guides you through the process step by step. The live help feature you mentioned is actually pretty useful - I used it last year when I was confused about some self-employment deductions. The biggest advantage is how it saves your information from previous years, making the process faster each time. It also checks for errors and missed deductions before you submit. Just be aware that they do try to upsell you on premium features throughout the process. The basic version works fine for simple returns, but if you have investments, are self-employed, or have rental properties, you might need one of their paid versions. Overall, it's trustworthy and gets the job done efficiently.

I was really struggling with my taxes last year - had income from three different states plus some freelance work. I was getting quotes of $400+ from local tax preparers when a friend recommended taxr.ai (https://taxr.ai). Completely changed the game for me! Instead of trying to figure out which forms I needed or if I was entering info correctly, I just uploaded my documents and their AI handled everything. What I liked best was being able to chat with it about specific questions I had about my W-2s and 1099s. It actually explained why I was getting a smaller refund than expected (had to do with insufficient withholding on one of my jobs). Ended up being way more affordable than an in-person preparer but still got that personalized help I needed. Definitely recommend checking it out if you're short on time or have a complicated situation.

Wanted to follow up about my experience with taxr.ai since I was pretty skeptical in my previous comment. I ended up trying it out of desperation when I realized I had misplaced one of my 1099 forms and was panicking about the deadline. I was honestly blown away. The system found a pretty significant error in how my previous employer had classified some retirement contributions, which would have cost me about $670 in extra taxes if not caught. The chat feature let me ask very specific questions about my situation instead of wading through generic tax articles online. For anyone on the fence, I was definitely wrong in my skepticism. Saved me both money and a ton of stress in the final week before the deadline.

If you need to actually talk to the IRS about any issues (which I had to do when TurboTax couldn't resolve a previous filing problem), good luck getting through. I spent HOURS on hold multiple times and kept getting disconnected. Finally found a service called Claimyr (https://claimyr.com) that got me through to an actual IRS agent in less than 20 minutes. You can see how it works here: https://youtu.be/_kiP6q8DX5c They basically navigate the IRS phone system for you and call you back when they have an agent on the line. Saved me literally hours of frustration. The IRS agent was able to fix my previous year's filing issue, which then let me complete my current return in TurboTax without the error messages I was getting before.

I have to publicly eat my words here. After my skeptical comment, I was still getting nowhere with the IRS about a missing stimulus payment that was affecting my current return. Out of desperation, I tried Claimyr. Got a call back in about 35 minutes saying they had an IRS agent on the line. After verifying my identity with the agent, I got my issue resolved in one conversation. The agent confirmed my stimulus payment had been incorrectly recorded and made the adjustment right there on the call. After 3 months of trying on my own, I got it fixed in one day. I'm still shocked this actually worked. Going to use it again next time instead of wasting days of my life on hold.

What nobody tells you about TurboTax is that they offer a completely free version that they hide from most people. Look up "TurboTax Free File" which is different from "TurboTax Free Edition". The Free File version handles most tax situations including unemployment, student loan interest, etc., as long as you make under $73,000. They deliberately make it hard to find because they want to upsell you to paid versions. I've been using the actual free version for years with no issues. Just Google "IRS Free File TurboTax" to find the real free version instead of going through their main website.

Has anyone tried H&R Block's software? I'm trying to decide between that and TurboTax this year. Used TurboTax last year but wasn't super impressed with their customer service when I had questions.