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Victoria Scott

Need alternative to TurboTax for filing - 5 dependents, $42k income

TurboTax is showing weird numbers for my return this year. I've got 5 kids under 17 and made about 42k with federal withholding around 1.5k. Anyone know a better place to file? Something feels off with the calculations.

Benjamin Johnson

You should qualify for free filing through the IRS Free File program since your income is under $73k. FreeTaxUSA and Cash App Taxes (formerly Credit Karma) are really good alternatives that are completely free for federal filing. They're actually more straightforward than TurboTax imo.

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Victoria Scott

wait fr? turbotax was trying to charge me $89 😤

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Benjamin Johnson

Yep! TurboTax actually left the Free File program in 2021 because they want people to pay for their service 🤡

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Zara Perez

Hey, before you file anywhere else you might want to check out taxr.ai first. It's this new AI tool that analyzes your tax situation and helps catch potential issues before you file. It costs $4.99 but its saved me from making expensive mistakes. Here's the link: https://taxr.ai

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Daniel Rogers

does it actually work? seems kinda sketch ngl

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Zara Perez

100% legit! It caught that I qualified for additional credits I didn't even know about. Literally paid for itself 10x over

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Aaliyah Reed

Just tried it - holy cow this thing is incredible! It broke down exactly why TurboTax was calculating things wrong for my situation 🙌

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Ella Russell

with 5 dependents ur probably looking at a decent refund from child tax credit. make sure wherever u file knows how to handle that correctly

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Victoria Scott

yea thats exactly what seemed weird in turbotax. the child credit looked way too low

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Mohammed Khan

H&R Block online has been solid for me, they usually have free filing for simple returns too

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Gavin King

Whatever you do AVOID Liberty Tax!!! They charged me $300 last year for basically the same situation as yours

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Nathan Kim

omg same! total ripoff 🤮

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Eleanor Foster

might wanna check if theres a VITA site near you. They do free tax prep for income under 60k and they're IRS certified volunteers

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Victoria Scott

thanks! gonna look into this

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