They save your info from last year and let you use it this year without holding it hostage for money! I just filed my taxes for the second year in FreeTaxUsa. They saved all of my info from last year, pre-filled family info, employer info, mortgage bank info, etc. All I had to do is go in and make updates to income, mortgage interest, etc. Saved a ton of time in data entry.
They didn't just transfer my last year's info to show me how easy it would be to to have everything pre-filled, then hold the info hostage if I didn't agree to buy a higher priced product like some other tax preparation software companies. They just let me use my own information. Another thing they allowed me to do that SOME OTHER tax preparation software companies wont allow me to do is file a 1099-misc. For non-employee income for free instead of $50! I love this and have told everybody I know.
I also paid this company to file my state return instead of going straight to the state website like I normally did. It was a fair price, and I appreciate their business practices enough to pay them. Frankly, I wouldn't mind paying them a small fee for federal filing either.