TurboTax Uses Dark Patterns to Trick You into Paying to File Your Taxes
The real dirty secret of tax software is that even after all they've done to try to make filing your taxes as difficult as possible, I <i>still</i> find just using the IRS's "FreeFileFillableForms" software to fill out and submit my own 1040 far easier than any software I've ever used.<p>In particular, every piece of tax software I've used has had trouble with figuring out what I owe on scholarships and stipends, and letting me enter it in the software. After four hours fighting H&R Block's "free" software one time, I swore I would never do it again and just do my own taxes now. Far easier, and faster.<p>Plus since I'm a California resident filing state taxes is as easy as reading numbers off the 1040 to put into the FTB website.