Pros & Cons
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- Supports all major IRS forms and schedules
- Imports more prior-year data than rivals
- Covers self-employment topics well
- Great error-checking
- Excellent mobile access
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- Expensive
- Substandard user experience
- Weak support content and little context-sensitive help
- Can’t import 1099s or W-2s
Liberty Tax 2025 (Tax Year 2024) Specs
| All Major IRS Forms and Schedules | |
| Chat Help | |
| Hyperlinked Help In Interview | |
| Mobile Access | |
| Searchable Help Database |
You've probably heard of Liberty Tax thanks to its large physical presence. Liberty also offers tax preparation software that handles self-employment categories well and thoroughly checks your return as you go. That said, Liberty Tax is expensive, doesn't let you import several common IRS forms, and really needs to upgrade its help tools and user experience. Intuit TurboTax offers superior guidance in a more user-friendly interface, making it our Editors' Choice winner. FreeTaxUSA, another Editors' Choice winner, lets you file your federal return for free and supports all major forms and schedules.
Pricing: High, Considering Its Guidance and User Experience
The Basic tier of Liberty Tax ($57.95 for federal returns) supports the Earned Income Credit, no dependents, taxable interest of $1,500 or less, and W-2 and unemployment income. It assumes you will claim the standard deduction. It’s roughly comparable to H&R Block’s free version. The Deluxe option ($77.95 federal) supports dependents, itemized deductions, and investment or retirement income. It targets taxpayers with taxable income of $100,000 or less. I tested the Premium tier ($97.95 federal), which covers farm, real estate, and rental income, as well as self-employment. You need to use this plan if your taxable income is over $100,000. State tax prep and filing costs an additional $36.95 for all product levels. Discounts are available early in the tax filing season.
These prices are high considering what you get—and don’t. You can file for free (both federal and state returns) using Cash App Taxes, which supports all major IRS forms and schedules. However, it's not an option if you need to file a part-year state return or multiple state returns. You also can't report foreign-earned income. Another affordable option is FreeTaxUSA, which is free for all-inclusive federal returns and $15.99 per state return. With these services (especially Cash App Taxes), you sacrifice some support resources that you are likely to need at some point. H&R Block and TurboTax are especially good when it comes to help.
Interface and Ease of Use: A Good Framework With Some Quirks
Liberty Tax’s overall framework is similar to that of the competition. It breaks down complicated IRS forms and schedules into smaller, manageable chunks. You don't see the official documents until you finish. The site takes on the persona of an in-office tax preparer and asks you a lengthy series of questions. It first requests personal information, which it can automatically add if you used Liberty Tax last year. It actually brings in more data than any other service except for Jackson Hewitt. The site then displays lists of the income, deductions, and credits that you can report. You can either select the relevant topics or let the site walk you through every section. Both approaches work well.
(Credit: Liberty Tax/PCMag)If you don’t indicate early on that you’re going to visit a specific topic, it won't appear on these landing page lists. You might be able to find it by searching, but competitors include all topics in a section regardless of whether you indicate you need them. They usually put them at the bottom of the page, below active topics, and you may have to click an extra link, but they’re there.
As you work your way through multistep wizards, you provide answers by choosing options from drop-down lists, clicking buttons, and entering data in fields. Unlike with competitors, you can't import data from 1099s and W-2s, so you have to type everything in manually. It's not possible to import returns you prepared using competing sites, either.
The site does all the necessary calculations and records your answers on official IRS forms in the background. Then, it reviews your return and moves the relevant data to any state returns you need to file.
Besides having an exceptionally plain (but fast) user interface, Liberty Tax has way too many pages with a single question, which wastes space and adds to prep time. Other pages, like Schedule C, are quite lengthy. The site also uses some nonstandard conventions. For example, it requires you to save some pages manually. All competitors, except Jackson Hewitt, automatically save your data. If you click Cancel on a page without saving, a pop-up message warns about potential data loss. To avoid that, click the link that says, "Save my progress...I'll finish this form later." This allows you to move on without completing a page.
(Credit: Liberty Tax/PCMag)Another unusual feature: When you log in, it takes you to the File Now page instead of asking whether you want to pick up where you left off, as TaxAct and others do. That eats up more time, especially since it takes you back to the beginning of the section, not to the exact page. These operational problems—and more—have persisted for years.
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Help and Support: Lacking in Volume and Depth
Liberty Tax’s help resources are in short supply. You can chat with or send email questions to technical support specialists, enter words or phrases in a search box, or read FAQs. I did several searches for common terms and forms and got no hits. However, a search occasionally returns a few FAQs about a topic, or unrelated ones. This centralized help appears on a separate page rather than in a vertical pane to the side, which isn’t very convenient.
Sometimes, hyperlinks on interview pages open brief explanations in pop-up windows. The same is true for warnings. For example, when you enter real estate taxes, Liberty Tax tells you to make sure you didn't enter them elsewhere. Hyperlinks within the interview worked fine, although more would be helpful.
(Credit: Liberty Tax/PCMag)Occasionally, the site breaks out topics and provides additional information. For example, it asks questions to help you determine your filing status. This depth is found at a few points on the site, but it’s more likely that you won’t get enough guidance on all topics. H&R Block and TurboTax are masters at providing an enormous amount of clear and context-sensitive guidance everywhere you turn.
Self-Employment: Thorough and Understandable
Liberty Tax provides comprehensive interview content for self-employment topics. It supports Schedule C and covers subjects such as the 1099-MISC and 1099-NEC (as well as income not reported on them, such as cash and checks), business use of home, and vehicle expenses. The help links point to the available 1099-K data entry page, but I had to search to find it. The site gets your information in a slightly different order than competitors, but it eventually covers all the basics.
Liberty Tax handles business expenses well. It provides a brief description of each category (which is more than some competitors do) and lets you create lists of the specific types of purchases you made in each category, such as paper and postage under Office Expenses. It tallies them for each, unlike any other site. It also lets you provide a detailed breakdown of your business vehicle expenses on another page. I wish the site carried this kind of scrupulous recordkeeping over into some other areas. For example, I encountered a field that asked for all medical expenses other than health insurance premiums. Competitors break this down into individual costs, such as hospital costs and prescription costs.
(Credit: Liberty Tax/PCMag)The Final Review: Better Than the Rest
Liberty Tax checks for errors on every page and doesn't let you advance if you don't complete the current one or click the aforementioned button to manually save your progress. As such, the final review is unlikely to find many data errors, though it did find two forms I didn't complete. When I clicked one, it took me directly to the problem page and highlighted what was missing, then returned me to the review. Liberty Tax’s review process works much better than most competitors’.
Other tools appear on the review page as well. For example, one section lists all the forms you completed and allows you to revisit them or search for additional ones you think might apply to your situation. No app offers such an effective wrap-up except Jackson Hewitt.
(Credit: Liberty Tax/PCMag)Security: Is Liberty Tax Safe to Use?
Liberty Tax maintains electronic, physical, and procedural security measures that comply with applicable legal and regulatory standards to safeguard your personal information, including multi-factor authentication. The company follows generally accepted standards, such as encryption and Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) technology, to protect your personal data, whether it's in transit or at rest. Separately, I recommend taking standard security precautions when you enter identifying financial or personal data on a website. You should use a trusted network (like your home Wi-Fi), for instance.
Mobile Access: Better Than the Desktop Experience
Liberty Tax doesn't have a standalone mobile app, but you can complete and file even a complex return in the browser on your phone. The mobile site offers access to all the features and content of the desktop version except for a real-time total of your tax refund or obligation. Like the desktop version, it’s clean and fast, and navigation tools work similarly. All help tools are available, too. I preferred working on my phone because the mobile site's interface has less empty space.
(Credit: Liberty Tax/PCMag)Final Thoughts
(Credit: Liberty Tax)
Liberty Tax 2026 (Tax Year 2025)
Liberty Tax is a comprehensive online tax preparation service from the well-known brick-and-mortar tax preparer, but its dated interface and gaps in guidance limit its appeal.