TaxAct

I have used TaxAct for the last 6 years to file my returns, but NONE of my data is available. My old account just disappeared.

The website is usually not working properly which made completing my business and personal returns this year quite challenging.

THEN to top it all off, my business return would not efile and I got no explanation as to why AND I was charged twice. The phone number listed on my credit card bill is no longer in service. The new number they give is listed so quickly I had to call twice to write it down. AND they are closed on Saturday...

Not to mention I can't get a status of my personal return...

Could not get any worse than this.

I just had the worst support experience with TaxAct (actually with any company I have ever worked with).

I was trying to log back into my account and getting an ERROR CODE 022 on the taxact.com login page. I use a password manager so I know my credentials were good. I clicked the helpful chat icon at the bottom of the page to receive support.

I explained my problem. I was tersely told that there was a "connection issue" and that support cannot help me any further. I pressed anyway and asked what I was supposed to do to access my account, flabbergasted.

I was then insulted and told to go to a library!

Great! Thanks TaxAct. Now I have to throw away the couple of hours I spent yesterday on my return. Why? Firstly, because I cannot access my account and their support is worse than not helpful. Secondly, because if they think they are EVER getting my business, then picture a snowball in Hades.

Unbelievable.

That's right folks. That's what I got hammered with at the last moment this year. I was literally screaming at my computer I couldn't believe I had been such a sucker. I had to either pay up or file an extension and I almost went for an extension just on principal alone. Yes, a class action law suit will end their pathetic careers shortly, but in the mean time, just go elsewhere. Hell, H&R Block is a value compared to these clowns now.

It states that you can filed your state taxes through e-file for free and then it states at the very end you will need to pay to file your state taxes. Which is it? I wish I had gone with another company I have never had this issue in the last 2 years of working with them. NO other companies charge you for basic filing its a HUGE rip off.
This is what they have on their site:
With free e-file and direct deposit, you'll get your state refund the fastest way possible and be notified when your return has been processed.

All you need to do to complete your guaranteed accurate state return is answer a few questions. Do you want to complete your Arizona return?

Add your state for only $39.95 more. Pay when you file. Prices are determined at time of filing and subject to change.

TaxAct used to be my go-to tax service due to simplicity of use for the website. But this year the site screwed up and screwed up big. It is supposed to import your state withholding after finishing the Federal taxes. When doing the state taxes there is no where to verify such withholding values are in your form until you pay for the state tax (which I must mention is a separate charge). Because I e-filed this mistake is going to take more time to submit to my state an amended return, and if I don't get a refund for the state filing, will cost me an extra $40 (for nothing!). My advice - if you do your state taxes through tax act don't e-file until you can verify the form, or better yet, just go to a tax service to do the state only, where you can speak with an actual human being.

Tax Act added on stimulus or recovery funds that I was not elligable for because I had already gotten them to my refund. This has happened two years in a row now. The IRS holds up and corrects the form and sends back the proper amount. This takes a few months. This needs to be corrected by TaxACT.

They added things I never typed in. Here is a partial conversation by email.

Glenda,
I review all client's tax returns with the alerts, twice. It did not appear as you show it. Period.
He never had a 1099 B to enter, so how did it appear?
The missing sold date on the sale, should of been a no brainer rejection of the return by TaxAct!

I appreciate you looking into this but I will have to take next year's tax business to another site because I feel this mess deserves a phone call but I have been wasting my time typing.

Thank you, Jack

Only a venal sin. We live where there is no mobile service available from any provider. No bars. The IT people at Tax Act, not at all unique, ASSUME that everyone has a mobile device and requires one to register or use the software. Just another example of corporate IT ASSuming. There are worse tax preparation software companies out there.

I've used TaxACT for over 10 years. 10 years ago I would have rated them five stars and now I would give them at two. Their customer service and availability has really gone downhill. Before you would always be able to get somebody on the phone or email now you have to jump through hoops just to be able to send in an email rather than being online or on hold or disconnected. They dance around and refuse to address glitches within their program that you can show exist, and their assistance with individual state tax returns, Utah in particular are not complete enough where you have to do manual entries and they are not carried over for you. In addition they had glitches in their social security benefit non-refundable credit that they refuse to it acknowledge even though the person I spoke with on the phone was curious why it seemed to work for another state. Another reason is I had done a debit for my state but then I got an email from TaxACT stating that I was going to mail in a check. I thought I'd messed up so I went ahead and mailed and a check and in addition to that had a debit taken out by the state. I filed an email right away to TaxACT and 6 days later they email me back and say that their email is no longer valid rather than address the issue.

What I do like is that I'm comfortable with the program and I'm wondering how long I'm going to decide that being comfortable is not good enough.

Last year TurboTax got a lot of heat for secretly removing features from their products and then doing a hard upsell. Intuit realized their mistake but ended up damaging their reputation quite severely.

I've been a TaxAct customer for 6 years. Last year I purchased their Deluxe version for $23. The Deluxe worked well and included Schedule C and D as a matter of course.

This year TaxAct split their product line into 4 products, the Plus version, at $34, appearing to be the rough equivalent of last year's Deluxe.

Was it equivalent? No way.

When you get to the section covering Schedule C up pops a screen prompting you to purchase their Premium upgrade for $10 more!

That doubles the cost of TaxAct for folks needing Schedule C's. Shame on TaxAct. Did they learn nothing from Intuit's gaff?

I have used them in the past with no issue. I didn't work for a few years and didn't need to file taxes until now. When coming back, the site is set up like a phone app. Okay, not so bad, I can get through this. I enter my w2 info and get clear through adding the state filing info, and they tell me I can't continue without upgrading to the deluxe version! I didn't think it got any simpler than a w2, but apparently it couldn't be done with the free version. I tried again thinking I entered something incorrectly, same result. I said screw it and used freetaxusa since I saw a recommendation for it on reddit. Much cheaper and simpler. I used to love taxact, as it was the easiest to use and was reasonably priced. Puts a sour taste in my mouth now.

Night of the deadline trying to help my father file his taxes and apparently the site is too busy to even get on. So I call customer support and am told the volume is too high and hung up on. Kind of weird to have a site built for one purpose, yet it cannot even do that one task.

Mine was taxes with stocks sale and HSA.
Stocks sale was so painful to fill every transaction and it was useless, since i had to do a lot of figuring out myself.

HSA is worse. Its actually inaccurate. I contribute X $ from my pocket and i should be allowed to claim that as a credit, however this software doesnt do that.
Felt like i almost did everything by myself and paid $30 for that, inaccurate end result.

Would never come back to taxACT.

I've been on hold with them today for about 2 hours. That was after spending an hour trying to find out what their phone number was. Live Chat help only becomes available after you start deleting your return! BTW... Live Chat was no help either. The IRS keeps rejecting my return because a 1099 I'm enter has an FEID that doesn't seem to match the FEID that was in the IRS's efile data. I contacted the agency that sent the 1099; they have not had any other complaints and the woman that helped me filed her person taxes with no problem. Now all I want to do is delete my return and use Turbo Tax instead. TaxAct's only solution is for me to file a paper return. If I wanted to file a paper return, I would have done that from the beginning!
Customer Service has disappeared completely. Horrible company!

Stay away, very deceitful. Did an Online Premier return $69.95, spent 5 hours finalizing it only to find out they automatically signed me up for a $124.95 All-inclusive package. When you first start they offer an inclusive package, then supposedly, there is a button to decline. Well I never seen a button and according to customer service a lot of people don't. So you would think that they could change it back to Premier, nothing has been paid or filed. NOPE, I would have to start a whole new return! That is totally unacceptable, deceitful and definently BAIT AND SWITCH.

I used tax act for several years and have no complaints. This 2017 online version truly is not a good product. I had solar installed this year and tax act didn't even have current forms for me to fill out to get my tax credits of about $4700. Luckily, I talked with the solar installer and he said most customers use turbo tax. I followed his advice and didn't finish my return with tax act and turbo tax was very easy to use and they had all forms that made this tax credit a simple one to take. Turbo tax and tax act are now the same price, so why use an inferior product?

Filed TaxAct online having 36 hours to deadline. No confirmation wither way. Tried to contact TaxAct be telephone and email after 24 hours. Problem suspected to be with partnership between TaxAct and VPS for payment. Forced to mail paper copy and check to IRS. What a joke EFile and customet no-service has become. Now have a larger sum of money floating around and having to try to recover electronic payment. This borders on outright fraud by TaxAct and VPS. Never use again after 10 years.

Deluxe plus State will not correctly calculate the HSA adjustment and the support phone that finally answers the worthless self help that is unable to understand plain English transfers you to the beginning of the recordings to start over, then hangs you on hold for 1 hr and 20 min. ( I finally hung up) If you contribute to an HSA, be very careful. It's hard telling what else they have wrong in this software and don't expect any kind of professionalism in getting assistance.

Now called Fairview Taxi I will no longer be using this service due to the many horrible experiences I have had with most of the drivers; I gave them a chance. These men are rude savages, argumentative, unaccommodating (won't help with bags or anything). They have no education and I don't just mean schooling but everyday etiquette that one should learn at home. Last night was the last time this will happen to me! I cannot recommend this service and advise women especially not to use them for safety reasons.