I became curious of this after seeing some “life pro tips” posts about which tax-filing services are *actually* free. Obviously the big sites will try to squeeze every dime they can out of you, while claiming to be free. But some of these sites are legitimate **and** free, and I don’t understand how they can offer these services and still turn a profit.
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It’s basically advertising for their specific companies.
They usually only offer free if you have the most basic type of tax return. W-2 income only, federal only, no itemization, etc. Have anything too interesting and the charge you. Or for auxiliary services like if you want them to keep your records on file. Then hope your situation changes next year and you become a paying client.
Also long ago the tax companies and the IRS made a deal that the companies would provide free filing options and in return the IRS wouldn’t develop it’s own system and run them out of a ton of business. Then immediately started doing as much scummy stuff to finagle money from you while you initially thought your return was actually going to be free.
Part of that is to actually get to the IRS free file partnership stuff you need to go through the IRS website here: https://www.irs.gov/filing/free-file-do-your-federal-taxes-for-free
The free options offered are mostly to distract you from realizing that this exists.
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