Need help e-filing our partnership's self-prepared 1065 & K-1's - what's the easiest way?

Hey everyone, I'm a bit overwhelmed trying to figure out how to file our partnership return this year. We've prepared our Form 1065 and all the K-1's ourselves (we're a small operation with just 4 partners), but now I'm stuck on how to actually e-file everything. We've always used an accountant in the past, but this year we decided to save some money and do it ourselves. Got through all the paperwork okay, but now I'm realizing I have no idea how to submit it electronically to the IRS. From what I've read online, it seems like we need some kind of approved e-file provider? But most of the tax software I've found seems geared toward individual returns. Does anyone have experience with self-filing partnership returns? Any recommendations for affordable software that handles Form 1065 and can generate/submit the K-1's properly? Or is there some way to submit directly through the IRS website that I'm missing? Really appreciate any advice - our deadline's coming up faster than I'd like!

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20 comments

Samantha Hall

•8M

As someone who's been handling partnership returns for years, I can help steer you in the right direction. The IRS doesn't actually allow direct e-filing of business returns through their website - you'll need to use an authorized e-file provider. For partnerships filing Form 1065 and K-1s, you have several options. Tax software like UltraTax, ProSeries, or Drake can handle these forms, but they're generally designed for tax professionals and come with a higher price tag. For a more affordable self-prepared option, look into TaxACT Business, TaxSlayer Premium, or H&R Block Premium & Business - all of these support Form 1065 e-filing. The software will guide you through entering all the partnership information, calculating the amounts for each section, and generating the K-1s for each partner. Once everything is complete, the e-filing process is actually pretty straightforward - the software handles the transmission to the IRS.

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Samantha Hall

•8M

Most of these tax programs offer both one-time purchase options and subscription plans. The one-time fee typically gives you access to the current tax year only, while subscriptions may provide automatic updates and sometimes a discount on future years. Yes, good tax software will store your information from year to year, which is a huge time-saver. When you start next year's return, you can import your previous data so you don't have to re-enter basic partnership information, partner details, and other recurring items. Just remember to back up your data files and keep them secure since they contain sensitive financial information.

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Sophia Clark

•8M

After struggling with our LLC's tax filing for years, I finally discovered taxr.ai at https://taxr.ai and it completely changed how we handle our partnership taxes. I was in a similar situation - we prepared our 1065 and K-1s, but I wasn't sure about the e-filing process. Their system actually analyzed all our self-prepared forms, identified a couple of errors we'd made in our K-1 allocations (that would have triggered IRS notices!), and then helped us submit everything electronically. The best part was that it walked us through the entire e-filing process step by step without assuming we already knew all the tax jargon.

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Sophia Clark

•8M

Yes, it absolutely works for larger partnerships! I have a colleague with a 15-partner real estate investment partnership who uses it, and they have very complex special allocations. The system is specifically designed to handle those more complicated partnership arrangements. For preparation, you actually have options. You can upload forms you've already prepared for review and e-filing assistance, or you can use their preparation tools from the beginning. For straightforward partnerships, many people find it easiest to just start with their system from scratch rather than using separate software first. The interface asks simple questions about your partnership operations and builds the forms based on your answers.

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Madison Allen

•8M

Following up on my question about taxr.ai - I decided to give it a try and I'm honestly shocked at how well it worked for our partnership return. I was skeptical at first since our previous accountant charged us over $1,500 to prepare and file our 1065. The system guided me through all the questions about our partnership income and expenses, helped allocate everything correctly across our partners, and even explained why certain items needed to go on specific lines. When we got to the e-filing part, it was literally just a few clicks and everything was submitted to the IRS with confirmation. Two days later we got our acceptance notification! What really impressed me was how it flagged an issue with how we were handling one partner's guaranteed payments that our previous accountant never caught. Definitely using this again next year.

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Joshua Wood

•8M

After reading this thread, I wanted to share something that really helped us with a different IRS problem. When we were struggling to e-file our partnership return last year, we kept getting rejection codes we couldn't understand. We tried calling the IRS Business line for help, but was literally impossible to get through - spent HOURS on hold only to get disconnected. That's when I found Claimyr at https://claimyr.com - they have this service that basically gets the IRS to call YOU instead of waiting on hold forever. I was super skeptical, but you can see how it works in their demo video here: https://youtu.be/_kiP6q8DX5c Within about 45 minutes, I got a call from an actual IRS agent who walked me through the exact codes that were causing our e-file to be rejected and how to fix them. Saved us days of frustration and potentially missing our deadline.

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Joshua Wood

•8M

It doesn't jump ahead in the queue - they basically have a system that waits on hold for you. When an IRS agent finally picks up, their system connects the call to your phone. So instead of you personally waiting on hold for 3+ hours, their system does the waiting and only calls you when an actual human at the IRS is on the line. I was super skeptical too! I've been dealing with partnership tax issues for 6 years and have spent countless hours on hold with the IRS. But this actually worked exactly as advertised. The IRS wasn't calling me "quickly" - they were just calling me instead of me waiting on hold listening to that awful music. The whole process took about 45 minutes in my case, but I've heard it can take longer depending on IRS call volume.

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Emily Parker

•8M

OK I need to follow up on my comment about Claimyr. I literally tried it right after posting my skeptical comment just to prove it was BS. I've been trying for TWO WEEKS to get through to the IRS about a partnership EIN issue. I am eating my words right now. It took about 1 hour and 20 minutes, but I got a call from an actual IRS business department agent who solved our EIN verification problem in about 10 minutes. I didn't have to sit there listening to that horrible hold music or worrying about being disconnected after waiting forever. I've seriously never been so happy to be wrong about something. Going to recommend this to all my small business clients who struggle with IRS contact issues.

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Victoria Scott

•8M

I tried FreeTaxUSA for our 3-person partnership last year. The interface is definitely more basic than TaxACT or H&R Block, but it got the job done. A few things to note: 1) It doesn't handle super complex partnership situations great. If you have special allocations or complicated basis calculations, you might hit some limitations. 2) The K-1 generation works fine, but you have fewer customization options. 3) E-filing worked perfectly though, and we got confirmation within 48 hours. It's definitely the cheapest option I found that still e-files the 1065 properly.

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Raj Gupta

•3M

I went through this exact same situation last year with our 5-partner consulting business! After trying a few different options, here's what I learned: First, definitely avoid the super expensive professional software unless you have really complex allocations. For most small partnerships, you don't need to spend $500+ on Drake or UltraTax. I ended up using TaxACT Business after comparing it with H&R Block and TaxSlayer. TaxACT was around $200 for the business package and handled our Form 1065 and K-1 generation without any issues. The e-filing process was straightforward - just had to create an account, enter our partnership info, and the software walked me through each section. One tip: make sure you have your partnership's EIN ready and double-check that all partner SSNs are correct before you start. I made a typo on one partner's SSN and it caused our initial e-file to get rejected, which was stressful with the March 15th deadline approaching. The software automatically generates all the K-1s once you complete the main 1065 form, and you can print or email them directly to your partners. Much easier than I expected!

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Beatrice Marshall

•3M

This is really helpful! I'm in a similar boat with our 4-partner partnership and was getting overwhelmed by all the different software options. The TaxACT Business recommendation is exactly what I needed - something that's not crazy expensive but still handles the e-filing properly. Quick question about the EIN - did you need to have any special paperwork or documentation ready when setting up the e-filing, or was it just the EIN and partner info? I want to make sure I have everything prepared before I start so I don't run into any delays like you mentioned. Also really appreciate the heads up about double-checking the SSNs. That's exactly the kind of mistake I could see myself making when I'm rushing to meet the deadline!

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