Mark D.

Before I start with the review, I was able to file my IL state taxes, free of charge, on the IL.Gov website; most states probably have that.

I filed my federal and state through this website for the first time. It is a bare bones site with minimal help if you are stuck. Federal taxes went fine, but the state was a nightmare. This conversation was not like a regular email back and forth. The customer can email them and they will respond, but you can't respond back after that; you need to go to the contact us screen, which is separate from where you get their response and start your issue from scratch again or hope the same person gets this new email. If you are wondering, there is no phone contact number.

The issue was regarding my Parcel Number which this site referred to as a "property identification number". After the return got rejected I received an automated message stating I needed to enter my property identification number and county. I contacted the site via email and it was a nightmare. I kept telling them I was entering the info being asked for and their response was "Please read the entire screen completely and carefully". That was after my third email. I would add my entire email to see demonstrate how thorough my email was, but there is not enough room (anyone can message me or comment me and I can get it to them.). After I wrote another long email stating that I did not appreciate his 8 word response to me and if he can clarify what exactly I need to do, he wrote "You need to read the screen completely and carefully, there is no issue with the software." That was my forth email over the course of about a month or two so I was done. I emailed him back stating that I would like a refund because I now need to spend money to have someone do my states taxes (that was before I learned that IL.gov has free software) his response was "The rejection notice tells you exactly why your return was rejected and on what screen to make the corrections. See the area in the support center to request a refund of fees paid."

I applied for a refund explaining what I told the other person - in reality the person that issues refunds is probably the same person I was emailing about the issue - and the refund was denied with this written "The rejection notice clearly tells you why it was rejected and what to fix and where."

I am not a tax expert, but I was able to get by with the state's software, so it is not too difficult. Actually the state software was a little better than free1040taxreturn's software.