As someone who reviews tax software as part of my job, I regularly bounce around between tax prep websites to learn about new features and test them out myself. Last year, I ran into an unfortunate situation that sucked up hours of my time. It all started with IRS Free File.
With the click of a button, I locked myself into the Free File section of TurboTax. I wasn't able to easily convert to a paid product, as I expected. It took multiple customer service experts and a clever workaround to avoid entering my information again.
Here's what happened, what I learned, and what I'm doing this year when filing my taxes.
IRS Free File
The IRS Free File program is a great way to file your taxes if you qualify.
For TurboTax, you can file for free if your AGI is $36,000 or less, if you were active duty military with an income of $69,000 or less, or if you qualify for the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC).
If you are able to free file, definitely do it. It's a great program and most anyone who's eligible should take advantage. But there's a trap in the Free File program for people who don't qualify you should know about before getting started.
Once you choose the Free File option, you can't go back
On the landing page for the TurboTax Free File option, there's a big button that says "I qualify. Let's get started." The only way to get into TurboTax Free File is through that button. Once you click and sign in, you are able to prepare your taxes for free.
If you look closely at the Free File website, you'll notice there are no links to paid TurboTax products if you don't qualify. You can only go back to the IRS website. Apparently, the IRS requires this of participating software providers. But the rules go past the signup page.
I logged in to see how Free File looks and works for a review. When I did so with my own Intuit account (which I use for several products), I locked myself into Free File without realizing it.
When I later logged into TurboTax to complete my taxes as usual, I noticed the "Free File" logo at the top left but figured I could convert to a paid product later on if I didn't qualify.
I figured wrong.
Just like the Free File webpage, the IRS doesn't let TurboTax upsell you to another product if you ultimately don't qualify. I was stuck.
The multi-hour workaround that still allowed me to file
When I couldn't move to a paid product, I called Intuit customer service expecting some way to switch to a paid version of TurboTax. But there wasn't one.
Having spent hours of my time entering my tax info in TurboTax, I kept pushing for help and was ultimately connected with an expert support person who came up with a clever fix.
By this point, I had spent a lot of time talking to people who told me it couldn't be done. But I just didn't believe there was no way to give Intuit my money.
The support expert helped me use a little-known feature to get my data out of the Free File version of TurboTax online and into the paid product. I exported my data into a TurboTax export file, paid for a desktop version of TurboTax for Mac, and imported my file into the desktop version.
It took some navigating to figure out that clever solution. I gave my taxes one last scrub on the desktop version to make sure everything matched what I saw online. Then I clicked the button to file and everything worked smoothly.
I'm still a TurboTax fan and will use it this year
My biggest advice to anyone looking to do taxes themselves online: don't click the Free File option unless you're sure you qualify!
I was ultimately happy with the resolution Intuit customer service offered. It was a bit frustrating to get caught up how I did, but it was because of IRS rules. The highest levels of customer support were very friendly, helpful, and figured out a resolution that worked for me.
I'm planning to use TurboTax again this year for my personal taxes (I use TaxAct for my business) and already got started with my 2019 return in the self-employed, online version of TurboTax.
Disclosure: This post is brought to you by the Personal Finance Insider team. We occasionally highlight financial products and services that can help you make smarter decisions with your money. We do not give investment advice or encourage you to adopt a certain investment strategy. What you decide to do with your money is up to you. If you take action based on one of our recommendations, we get a small share of the revenue from our commerce partners. This does not influence whether we feature a financial product or service. We operate independently from our advertising sales team.
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