The Best Tax Software for 2023

Deeper Dive: Our Top Tested Picks

H&R Block 2023 (Tax Year 2022)

Best for Context-Sensitive Help

Why We Picked It

H&R Block is a respected household name in terms of personal tax preparation in the US. Its DIY tax prep lives up to that reputation. H&R Block’s numerous products and services feature user-friendly interfaces, extensive topic coverage, and context-sensitive help. The company excels at explaining tax issues in ways users can easily understand. For these reasons, it wins an Editors’ Choice award this year.

Who It’s For

H&R Block’s family of tax preparation websites offers something for almost everyone, from its free version for very simple returns to its top-tier sites designed to tackle the intricacies of Schedule C (for self-employment), which we reviewed this year. Its help resources are excellent and always contextual, which can be of benefit to both novice taxpayers and longtime filers.

PROS

• Excellent user experience with clear navigation
• Context-sensitive help
• Thorough, understandable explanations of tax topics
• Great mobile apps
• Optional fee-based expert help

CONS

• Sometimes slow to load
• Some excessive clicking required

Intuit TurboTax 2023 (Tax Year 2022)

Best for Tracking Investment Transactions

Why We Picked It

For many years now, TurboTax has earned an Editors’ Choice award because it made the personal tax preparation process more understandable and accessible than any competitor does. Its explanations of both simple and complex tax topics are conversational and comprehensible, and it provides multiple layers of help on its path through IRS Form 1040. Plus, it offers the best user experience of any application in this group.

Who It’s For

There’s a different version of TurboTax for every kind of taxpayer, from Gen Zers and millennials who do everything on their phones to individuals whose financial profiles are complex enough that they need their own personal online tax specialist. TurboTax has a version for self-employed people that’s good for both longtime sole proprietors and new gig workers who don’t understand Schedule C.

PROS

• Outstanding user experience
• Thorough, friendly interview Q&A
• Covers tax topics in exceptional depth
• Personalized explanations of tax calculations
• Excellent help resources and virtual support options
• Great mobile apps

CONS

• Expensive
• Advice from community members may not be accurate

TaxAct 2023 (Tax Year 2022)

Best Final Review

Why We Picked It

TaxAct is another DIY personal tax prep solution that’s been around for decades. It excels at simplicity. Its user interface and navigation system help users through the complexities of the IRS tax code, and its final review is one of the best we’ve seen. Like H&R Block and TurboTax, it digs deep, asking questions about your finances that help it find all the deductions and credits that you should get.

Who It’s For

Though it’s capable of preparing complicated tax returns, TaxAct is best used by taxpayers with simpler financial scenarios. It does a great job for W-2 employees who want to itemize to minimize their tax liability, and who don’t necessarily need the targeted support that TurboTax and H&R Block offer. It also provides a detailed walkthrough of Schedule C.

PROS

• Good user experience
• Logical organization of tax topics
• Digs for income and deductions
• Context-sensitive help
• Free professional help through Xpert Assist

CONS

• Many help links lead to IRS documents
• Search results not always targeted
• Expensive per-state filing

Cash App Taxes 2023 (Tax Year 2022)

Best for Free Federal and State Filing

Why We Picked It

Cash App Taxes, which used to be Credit Karma Tax, is the only service we tested that doesn’t cost a dime for comprehensive preparation and filing. All major and most minor tax forms and schedules are supported. The site is fast. It has an excellent UI and navigation system. And its mobile apps are great. It offers almost everything you need to prepare the most difficult of returns—except for a robust onsite help system and access to professional help.

Who It’s For

If you’re determined to file your taxes for free, Cash App Taxes is the way to go. Ideally, it’s best for people who have only W-2 income and a few deductions and credits. Though it’s capable of doing more, like reporting on self-employment, it does not offer the step-by-step data entry and guidance in areas like investment sales as other sites do, so it isn’t necessarily the best choice for a return requiring tons of forms and schedules. As mentioned, Cash App Taxes supports most IRS forms and tax situations, but not all. For example, you can’t claim the Qualified Electric Vehicle Credit or Low-Income Housing Credit. Be sure to check the list of what’s not included here(Opens in a new window).

PROS

• Free
• Pages load quickly
• Supports major IRS forms and schedules
• Simple but good interface and navigation
• Excellent mobile access

CONS

• Support lacks depth
• Can’t import interest or investment data
• Limited W-2 imports
• No expert tax help

FreeTaxUSA 2023 (Tax Year 2022)

Best for Free Federal Filing

Why We Picked It

FreeTaxUSA is the best free federal tax prep website (state returns cost $14.99). It offers a clean, professional user interface and an understandable navigation system. Its help system and associated tools are unexpected and unusually good for a free product. The site now offers a paid option to connect directly with a tax professional ($34.99 flat fee) and its mobile apps are excellent.

Who It’s For

Since the self-employed versions of competitors’ tax prep websites can be expensive, FreeTaxUSA is a good choice for gig workers who don’t have a lot of income and expenses to report but who must file a Schedule C. It’s also good for more complex returns if you’re on a budget because of its usability, thorough coverage of tax topics, and guidance options.

PROS

• Free federal e-filing
• Inexpensive state filing
• Supports all major forms and schedules
• Numerous help options
• Excellent mobile website
• Affordable professional tax support

CONS

• Can’t import 1099s
• Uninspired user interface
• Help pages obscure Q&A pages

TaxSlayer 2023 (Tax Year 2022)

Best for Budget-Conscious Tax Filers

Why We Picked It

TaxSlayer started as a tool for accountants and professional tax preparers more than 50 years ago. It’s been in the online DIY tax prep business since the 1990s. The site provides walkthroughs of common Form 1040-related topics and a searchable database of help files—improved for the current tax year—as well as guidance sprinkled throughout. 

Who It’s For

TaxSlayer’s price is lower ($49.95 for federal) than that of all of its competitors at the Self-Employed level (where we concentrated our testing), aside from the free Cash App Taxes and FreeTaxUSA. TaxSlayer supports preparation and filing of complicated financial profiles. So its target market is individuals and very small businesses whose returns require a Schedule C and who want help finding all of the deductions and credits they can claim.

PROS

• Affordable
• Fast
• Clean interface with intuitive navigation
• Supports all major IRS forms and schedules
• New data entry options

CONS

• Little context-sensitive help on Q&A pages
• Quantity and quality of help content could improve
• Search results aren’t very targeted
• Too much reliance on IRS instructions and publications

Jackson Hewitt Online 2023 (Tax Year 2022)

Best for Jackson Hewitt Clients

Why We Picked It

Jackson Hewitt is best known for in-person tax preparation at its more than 5,500 locations, 3,000 of which are located in Walmart stores. You can trust the company’s financial expertise and expansive coverage of tax topics in its DIY online tax prep products, and its price is reasonable ($25 for both federal and state). Jackson Hewitt professionals are always ready to take over if you find that you can’t complete your return yourself.

Who It’s For

We recommend Jackson Hewitt for taxpayers who have used the product before and liked it or those who are more comfortable patronizing a company with a recognizable brand. Jackson Hewitt is also for anyone who wants a no-frills tax prep experience with backup assistance if needed. Its online help tools aren’t strong enough to support someone who needs a lot of handholding along the way, however.

PROS

• Low price
• Comprehensive coverage of tax topics
• Good error checking
• Effective mobile versions

CONS

• Can’t import a prior year’s return from a competitor
• Context-sensitive, searchable help lacking in both amount and quality
• User experience not on par with competitors
• Some navigation quirks

Liberty Tax 2023 (Tax Year 2022)

Best for Liberty Tax Clients

Why We Picked It

Liberty Tax is a competent online tax preparation service from the well-known brick-and-mortar tax preparer. Pages load fast and its UI is simple and clean. The site offers a good review tool, and its mobile apps make it possible to complete a simple review on a smartphone. 

Who It’s For

Like Jackson Hewitt, Liberty Tax might appeal to taxpayers who have used it before and don’t want to deal with learning a new website. It might also be a good choice for current in-person clients of Liberty Tax who want to save some money by trying to do their taxes on their own. It’s more expensive than Jackson Hewitt, though, and it lacks the state-of-the-art UI offered by TurboTax and others. It also lacks the guidance that users with a lot of income, credits, and deductions might need.

PROS

• Pages load quickly
• Covers self-employment topics
• Good review process
• Excellent mobile access

CONS

• Substandard user experience
• Weak help content
• Little context-sensitive help
• Some atypical navigation

Buying Guide: The Best Tax Software for 2023

How Can I File My Taxes for Free?

If you want to file your taxes for free, you have a few options. First, you can go to the IRS Free File Guided Tax Preparation Options page(Opens in a new window) and see if you qualify to file a free tax return there. This year there are 11 options(Opens in a new window) in the IRS Free File Online program offered through a variety of partners. Each one has different criteria that you must meet to qualify. To file for free, you must start your return at the IRS site, not at the partner’s site. You can record—or import, in some cases—your W-2 and some 1099 data in some of them.

Second, you can use Cash App Taxes (formerly Credit Karma Tax). It is free to file both your federal and one state return using Cash App Taxes. This app supports most IRS forms, but a few tax situations are not included(Opens in a new window), such as estate and trust income, foreign earned income, low-income housing credit, and qualified electric vehicle credit, among others.

Another option is to use FreeTaxUSA. This service charges nothing for federal returns and only $14.99 for a state return. You can also buy enhanced support for an additional $7.99. 

Other sites have free options, too, but they’re limited in the forms and schedules they support. H&R Block, for example, is very generous in its free offerings among the normally paid services. It supports W-2 income, the Child Tax Credit (CTC), unemployment income, student expenses, and more for free. TaxAct allows retirement income, unemployment, and support for the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC), in addition to the W-2 and the CTC, but you must pay $36.99 per state filed. TurboTax lets you report W-2 income, the EITC, the CTC, student loan interest, and limited interest and dividend income. Using TaxSlayer, you can enter your education expenses, in addition to the W-2 and other topics. 

For more on qualifying to file for free, see E-Filing Your Taxes for Free: Are You Eligible?

What’s the Best Tax App for Self-Employment or Someone With Side Gigs?

Whether they were forced to or chose to, individuals continued to take on side gigs—think Uber, Lyft, or Doordash—or start small businesses in 2022. According to data from the US Census Bureau, summarized by the Commerce Institute, 5.04 million new business applications(Opens in a new window) were filed in 2022, down only slightly from the 5.38 million the year prior. That means a lot of taxpayers will face something they’ve never encountered on their 2022 taxes: Schedule C. Where do you turn for help if you are, say, a TikToker who needs to file as an influencer for the first time? Because professional tax preparation can be pricey, online DIY personal tax solutions are often a good option, especially if you don’t have a whole lot of income and expenses to report. 

If you’ve never tried using online tax services, there are three reasons 2023 is a good year to start. First, many changes to US tax laws haven’t made headlines because of more pressing news, which means you may not know about them. Tax websites are modified each year to account for changes to the tax law, so you don’t have to keep track of them all. Second, preparing and filing online might reduce your tax obligation, since these sites are trained to dig deep for deductions. Online tax services are thorough and guarantee accuracy, helping you avoid being audited by the IRS. Finally, tax website developers continue to offer more ways to connect to tax professionals virtually so they can help you complete and file your return—or even take on the entire task for you.

What’s the Best Tax Software for Cryptocurrency Transactions?

How do you figure out if you need to report activity related to Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies? The short answer is that if you’ve used, sold, exchanged, received as payment, or mined cryptocurrency in the past tax year, all those activities need to be reported. 

TurboTax and H&R Block provide the best support for reporting cryptocurrency transactions, though all sites we tested allow it. TurboTax even has a guide to cryptocurrency and your taxes(Opens in a new window).

Which Changes to the Tax Code Affect My Taxes?

In terms of making news, tax law changes have gotten lost in the shuffle this year. But tax website developers have paid attention, and they’ve built the appropriate modifications into their online solutions.

Increase in Income Thresholds to the Marginal Tax Rates

The marginal tax rate spread remained the same between the 2021 and 2022 tax years: 10%–37%. But the income thresholds have increased, as expected. Here’s what it looks like for the returns you’ll be filing in 2023 (tax year 2022), along with the thresholds for the 2021 tax year.

Child Tax Credit Rolls Back

Because of the COVID pandemic, the Child Tax Credit increased for 2021. It’s now back to its previous level for tax year 2022: up to $2,000 for every child under the age of 17. 

The Child and Dependent Care Tax Credit has also reverted to its 2020 amounts. It’s now capped at $3,000 for one dependent and $6,000 for two or more.

Earned Income Tax Credit Is Slightly Higher

The Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) provides a tax break to low- and moderate-income families and workers. Qualified taxpayers can reduce their tax obligations or increase their refunds. 

The EITC is complicated. There are numerous requirements for this tax break and special qualifying rules for some types of taxpayers, like military and clergy members. 

The maximum EITC for tax year 2022 is $6,935 for qualifying taxpayers who have three or more qualifying children, up from $6,728 for tax year 2021. The IRS explains it all here(Opens in a new window). The EITC is claimed on the IRS Form 1040 or 1040 SR. There’s also a Schedule EIC(Opens in a new window) [PDF] for taxpayers who have qualifying children. 

Long-Term Capital Gains Rates Increases

If you have held onto an asset for longer than a year and made a profit when you sold it, you may be subject to long-term capital gains taxes. 

There are three tax rate levels: 0%, 15%, and 20% of the profit, depending on the taxpayer’s salary. For example, for tax year 2022, if your status is married filing jointly, you would pay nothing if your income were below $83,350. The 15% rate is in force up to $517,200. Those with incomes over that threshold would have their profits taxed at 20%.

Personal tax preparation websites have built these alterations to the tax code—and many more—into their online products. And to varying degrees, they also explain how you can expect to be affected.

How Does Tax Software Work?

When you prepare your income taxes using paper forms, you spend a lot of time shuttling back and forth between them. You come to a line on form 1040 that requires a supporting form or schedule, so you go there and complete it, and then transfer the number back to the 1040. Sometimes you need to fill out a worksheet or chase down a document you got in the mail or double-check your calculations because things just don’t look right. You may have to do this many times if your return is complicated.

Online tax services work much differently. Once you create an account and fulfill the site’s security requirements, you can stop worrying about which forms you need and whether your calculations are correct. You also don’t need to worry about how any tax code changes are going to affect your return. That’s all taken care of in the background.

When you use a digital tax preparation solution, you’re really just filling out a lengthy questionnaire. These sites ask questions and you provide answers by entering information in blank fields, selecting the correct option from a list, or clicking a button. You never have to see an actual IRS form or schedule (though in some cases, you can if you want to).

If you’re familiar with tax forms, you’ll probably recognize the path that the tax site follows. It’s patterned after the order of the IRS Form 1040. Personal information comes first, and then you move on to income, deductions, credits, health insurance status, and taxes paid. After you’ve exhausted all the topics that apply to you, the site reviews your return and highlights potential errors or omissions.

Once you’ve addressed any concerns, the software transfers your tax data to any state returns you must file. Then you answer some final questions, check your entire return, and pay the service’s fees (if there are any). Finally, you file your return electronically and print or otherwise save a copy for yourself.

Is There More Than One Way to Work Through the 1040?

The step-by-step data entry path tax services provide generally works quite well, as long as you work your way through your whole return without a lot of backing up or lurching forward (which some sites don’t even allow). Jackson Hewitt, for example, asks whether you’d like to complete your 1040 by using its comprehensive interview. This option takes you through the entire process in one long Q&A session. It asks you about every tax topic that might apply to you.

The other option, and one that every online service offers, involves selecting only the tax topics that apply to you. You choose them from a list with options such as income, deductions, credits, and taxes. When you select one, the sites walk you through a mini interview to get the information they need. Then, they return you to the main list to choose another topic, and you repeat that process until you’re finished.

The point is, no matter how you choose to proceed, all you have to do is read what’s on the screen and follow the instructions. You spend most of your time responding to questions and clicking links to advance to the next screen or using the site-wide navigation tool. These sites are good guides, most of the time.

Do I Need to Read the IRS Instructions?

If you’ve ever filed a tax return, you know that understanding the IRS’s forms and schedules can be challenging, and the official written instructions don’t always help. The instructions are so comprehensive that it’s often hard to find the answer to your exact question. When you do find it, once again the language can be difficult to decipher.

From their earliest days, personal tax software developers have sought to interpret IRS-speak and make it more understandable to the non-accountant. Some of them have written and revised their content over many years to make it as clear as possible. Services like TaxAct do more. For example, they provide hyperlinks to small help windows that further explain a term or phrase. They anticipate questions you might ask and post Q&As on especially thorny topics. They try to ensure that you understand the question being asked so that you’ll provide the correct answer.

What If I Need Help Filing My Taxes?

Sometimes a friendly and understandable user experience isn’t enough, so tax websites offer online assistance. Some, including H&R Block, provide context-sensitive explanations in panes attached to the main working area.

In some cases, guidance isn’t available until you click a Help link. And sometimes a help link brings you to a giant database of questions and answers. You may be directed to IRS instructions and publications on a few sites, but usually, the technical content has been rewritten to make it understandable.

Is Professional Tax Help Available?

What do you do if you can’t find answers to your questions on the site? All sites offer at least one of three ways to contact the company’s technical support representatives: email, phone, or chat. TaxSlayer offers all three. H&R Block has online communities where you can see if your problem has already been addressed by someone else.

Technical support representatives cannot advise you on points of tax law, but other professionals can. Some tax prep sites offer to connect you to an accounting professional via chat, phone, or screen-sharing. Everyone charges extra for this, with two exceptions. TaxAct offers unlimited professional support for free, and TaxSlayer Self-Employed allows you to ask a question of a tax pro by email, but it can take at least one business day to hear back. 

Though it costs more in fees, you get the most innovative and comprehensive guidance if you use TurboTax Live. This service connects you with a tax professional who can work with you via video chat so he or she can prepare your taxes in one session. They’re available for questions not just during tax season, but year-round. H&R Block has a similar service. 

Which Tax Software Is Best for Tax Preparers?

The personal tax preparation services we review here produce very complex tax returns. You’ll pay more if you need more forms and schedules to complete your return. We reviewed the most expensive versions this year, those that provide tax prep tools for the self-employed and advanced topics like depreciation, rental income, and capital gains.

If you’re not comfortable in your ability to complete a complicated tax return, but still want to give it a shot, you can go with a site like H&R Block. The company offers DIY preparation and filing, of course. But if you get partway through and realize you’re not sure of some tax issues, you can have an H&R Block tax professional review your return, complete it, share the results with you, and sign and e-file it. You can even just upload your tax documents and the pro will take over. TurboTax offers a similar service this year.

For more direct comparisons between these two top tax competitors, you can read H&R Block vs. TurboTax: Which Tax Prep Software Is Best for Filing Your Taxes Online?

Can I Do My Taxes From My Phone?

Many of us are now used to the idea of filing our taxes on our PCs, but that’s not your only option. All the tax services we reviewed this year also let you do your taxes on your phone.

It used to be the case that you could basically only file a 1040EZ via a mobile device, but that’s no longer true. The best services now let you handle surprisingly robust returns without ever needing a full-sized computer.

How do tax services handle the transition to smaller devices? These services have dedicated Android apps and iPhone apps: TurboTax, H&R Block, TaxAct, TaxSlayer, and Cash App Taxes. These services offer mobile versions of their websites: FreeTaxUSA, Jackson Hewitt, and Liberty Tax.

How Can I Keep My Tax Data Secure?

Whenever you’re going to be sending sensitive information over a network you don’t control, you should be concerned. Since taxes are nothing but sensitive data, you ought to be doubly concerned if you’re filing from a coffee shop, say, or the airport. In fact, you should be concerned enough to not do it. 

Fortunately, protecting your traffic is as simple as using a VPN. The best VPNs create a secure tunnel that encrypts your data, ensuring that anyone who manages to intercept it sees only gibberish. 

Is Tax Software Safe?

Each of the tax websites we reviewed follows strict security protocols of its own, as you’ll see when you read the reviews. They’re at least as safe as the sites where you do online banking. Each offers a combination of different security methods. They do things like this:

• Monitor the site 24/7 and perform internal checks and external tests 

• Use multi-factor authentication 

• Employ Touch ID on their smartphone apps 

• Notify you of any unusual activity on your account, such as a password change, payment method update, or login from a new device 

• Apply industry-standard web-browsing encryption technology

• Ask you to answer security questions

Note that the IRS had originally announced that it would require facial recognition for filers to log into their system in 2022. It has since been announced that the IRS has backtracked on facial recognition, which would have been implemented via a third-party service for those creating new accounts. While this plan has been pulled for now, the IRS is looking for other authentication solutions.

Filing Your Taxes Online Is Easier Than Ever

Online tax preparation and filing services can save you a lot of time and frustration compared with filing your taxes on paper. They might even help you save money by finding deductions you hadn’t considered.

Tax apps and websites just keep getting better. If you’ve felt lost using a web-based tax solution in the past, consider giving it another try this year. Read our in-depth reviews and find the right service for your financial needs. You might be surprised at how easy it is to get through your taxes.