Pros & Cons
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- Deep coverage of tax topics
- Good interface and navigation tools
- Focused search results
- Thorough final review process
- Mobile site mirrors desktop
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- Pricey
- Some household and self-employment topics could use more help content
- Error-checking in Q&A could be better
TaxAct 2026 (Tax Year 2025) Specs
| All Major IRS Forms and Schedules | |
| Chat Help | |
| Comprehensive Navigational Outline | |
| Context-Sensitive Help | |
| Hyperlinked Help In Interview | |
| Imports Competitors' Returns | |
| Mobile Access | |
| Phone Support for Tax Topics | |
| Searchable Help Database |
TaxAct falls right in the middle of the personal tax prep services we test in terms of price. It supports all major IRS forms and schedules, so it should appeal whether you recently entered the workforce, have a complex financial profile involving lots of income types, credits, and deductions, or are a gig worker. Moreover, we like its mobile site, and the service has the distinction of being a top pick for paid tax software among PCMag readers. TaxAct is easy to recommend for all those reasons, even if it could use additional help content for the self-employed and more thorough error-checking during the Q&A process. TurboTax is our Editors' Choice for paid tax apps because it delivers excellence across the board, while FreeTaxUSA, another Editors' Choice winner, provides comprehensive tax coverage for free federal and affordable state filing.
Pricing: Somewhat High
TaxAct has three different versions. TaxAct Free supports taxpayers who need only to report W-2 income, dependents, unemployment and retirement income, the Earned Income Tax Credit, the Child Tax Credit, and some education issues (like student loan interest). The company says 44% of TaxAct filers qualified last year based on income & deductions. Federal prep and filing are free, but you pay $39.99 per state. Competitors like TurboTax and H&R Block don't charge for state returns with their free editions, though their top-tier self-employed versions are the most expensive among those we tested.
The Deluxe/Premier tier of TaxAct ($29.99 for federal taxes) focuses on home and family matters, adding topics like childcare expenses, health savings accounts (HSAs), and homeowner deductions. It also supports investors, covering cryptocurrency and other investment sales, home sales, and rental property income. The Self-Employed edition ($74.99 for federal) is the one you need if you’re a freelancer, an independent contractor, or some other type of sole proprietor. It includes Schedule C, which the IRS requires for reporting self-employment income and expenses. State prep and filing for all these versions costs $39.99.
That's a lot for gig workers to pay, especially considering that FreeTaxUSA (free for federal, $15.99 for state) and Cash App Taxes (free for both federal and state) support self-employed taxpayers and include the vast majority of IRS forms and schedules. Both offer excellent user interfaces and navigation tools, but their help content isn’t as robust as TaxAct’s.
Getting Started: Familiar Steps
Like competitors (and human tax preparers), TaxAct interviews you about your income and expenses as you advance through its wizard-like framework. You answer questions by entering data, checking boxes, or choosing from multiple options. You might be able to import data from your W-2 (depending on your employer) or snap a photo of it. The site also allows you to import 1099 data in multiple formats, including DOCX, JPEG, PDF, and PNG. You can enter data manually and report investment summary totals by attaching Form 8949.
TaxAct performs all the necessary calculations and adds your responses to the correct IRS forms and schedules in the background. Once you complete all federal and any required state Q&As, TaxAct looks for missed deductions, errors, and omissions in your return. After that, it helps you e-file or print the final document.
Interface and Ease of Use: Smooth Operations, Helpful Tools
Like every other tax preparation website, TaxAct requests personal information, such as your birth date, filing status, and Social Security number, after you sign up for an account. You can enter this data manually or import it if you've used TaxAct to file in previous years. You can also upload such information from another tax website via a PDF file. Then, you move on to entering income (from sources such as an employer, gig work, or an investment), deductions, and credits.
You can either let TaxAct walk you through the whole 1040 step by step or select the tax topics that pertain to your financial profile, such as business and self-employed, medical expenses, and the child tax credit. I suggest the walk-through for novice taxpayers and complex returns, as TaxAct lets you skip earlier topics without completing them, which can cause you to miss critical data entry. Competitors don’t let you move on to the next topic until you complete the current one.
TaxAct doesn’t have a comprehensive navigation outline like FreeTaxUSA, but the dashboard for each major section (Income, Deductions & Credits, and Taxes & Miscellaneous) breaks down the 1040 into subtopics. You can tell which topics you’ve started because they show a status label, though this can vary between sections. If you get tangled up, you can always return to these dashboards via the toolbar in the left pane. Pages are visually appealing and easy to read, while navigation links are clear.
(Credit: TaxAct/PCMag)That said, some tools should be more prominent. For example, clicking an unlabeled link at the top of the page offers four options. You can toggle your real-time refund number (or total owed). The Refund Snapshot displays two views of your return. One is a numerical summary, and the other is a series of three colorful charts that illustrate your total income and deductions (taxable income), your total taxes, and your federal refund or amount owed.
The Federal Summary breaks your current refund or taxes owed down into individual 1040 sections. Finally, you can turn on Line Item Details, which gives you access to a worksheet for fields where you need to total multiple numbers (such as business expenses on Schedule C). You can enter these individually and add notes to document what goes into a total. TaxAct doesn't file this background information with the IRS.
The site introduced a helpful convention a few years ago that saves time and reduces confusion. Some forms, like the 1099-INT, have an interminable number of fields that few people will need to complete, and which might lead you to believe that you are missing something. TaxAct displays only the fields people are most likely to need, then asks whether there are others you need to fill in. If so, it opens them. Otherwise, you can just move on.
(Credit: TaxAct/PCMag)Help and Support: Good, But Not Exceptional
TaxAct generally does a good job of explaining what it needs on its Q&A pages, although even basic household issues, such as health insurance, investment sales, and mortgage interest, could benefit from more guidance. Sometimes, it introduces topics with a bit of explanatory text. It also provides links that open brief explanations of the current tax topic or form. When the link is embedded in the Q&A, the window that opens obscures the interview screen. Unfortunately, the site still sometimes directs you to IRS publications.
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(Credit: TaxAct/PCMag)The best help tools appear in the right vertical pane when you click the Help or Learn More links that show up with some topics. As you click through screens, the pane automatically displays context-sensitive help if any is available—as long as you’ve cleared any previous search results. I didn’t see much context-sensitive help. If you’re on a page that doesn’t have any help, TaxAct shows some general guidance on using the software. This pane also includes form instructions, links to IRS publications, and the Tax Glossary.
I appreciate that the Help pane shows only relevant search results. Some tax sites prioritize the most relevant information, but then veer off into more obscure topics. TaxAct limits its responses to those that are relevant. The site also incorporates new topics from the 2025 tax law, with supporting explanations.
(Credit: TaxAct/PCMag)The articles in the Help Center, whether step-by-step instructions or explanations of tax concepts, use clear and understandable language. Still, TurboTax does a much better job of rewriting content and explaining tax topics in a lively way. It also has a lot more help content.
If you still have questions after consulting the site’s resources, you can chat or talk with a credentialed tax professional who can provide personalized tax guidance. Xpress Connect is a service that lets you spend 20 minutes on the phone (or in chat) with a tax pro ($15 flat fee per session). Xpert Assist costs $25 for unlimited calls during tax filing season. Phone help for operational questions is available at no cost.
Self-Employment Topics: Needs More Help Resources
TaxAct’s treatment of self-employment income and expenses is much like the rest of the site. That is, the Q&A process is comprehensive. It first asks you to select the type of work you do (such as Retail, Dealers, or Construction and Home Improvement) and your income sources (such as 1099s, cash and checks, and returned goods) from lists. TaxAct uses this information, as well as your business activities, to tailor your Schedule C. That's all pretty straightforward.
Expenses are more problematic. Categories such as advertising and legal, and professional services aren’t so difficult to quantify, but you might need more help than TaxAct offers when you start dealing with topics like depreciation. Even office expenses and travel can be tricky. You never know definitively whether the IRS will accept a particular expenditure until you’re sitting in an auditor’s office. No personal tax prep site can advise you on that, but additional guidance would be helpful here.
(Credit: TaxAct/PCMag)TaxAct handles all the moving parts of Schedule C just fine. If you’re self-employed and savvy about income taxes (or are willing to do some research), TaxAct should be satisfactory. Taxpayers with minimal income, including part-time gig workers, might consider a less expensive option that supports Schedule C, however.
Error-Checking: Good at the Return’s End
Most tax prep sites stop you if you start to enter information on a page and then don’t complete all the required fields. TaxAct doesn't, but it catches up during the final review (called Double Check). This tool identifies incomplete or inconsistent information and other issues that might affect the accuracy of your return, as well as suggests ways you might maximize your deductions.
The site competently handled the mechanics of isolating one of the offending pages and showed it to me so I could correct it (I hadn’t responded to a question about the health insurance marketplace). It also noted that I had reported mortgage interest but not real estate taxes, and that I hadn’t reported Social Security benefits (I had mistakenly entered a taxpayer’s birth year as 1960). And it offered to determine whether I’d save more money by reporting state income tax or sales tax.
TaxAct’s final review section also contains a report comparing tax topic totals from the 2025 tax year to the previous year. This can be another way to identify potential errors in your return, since it highlights the difference between the two years. If that difference is significant, it’s a good idea to revisit the topic.
Mobile Access: An Excellent, Responsive Site
You don’t have to download a mobile app to access TaxAct on your phone. You simply sign in through a browser. This approach worked great in testing, for the most part. Help tools, navigation, and the Q&A experience mirror that of the desktop site. The mobile site looks good and is also quite fast. The navigation menu is always available, making it easy for me to navigate. I actually prefer the mobile site to the desktop one, except that Double Check wouldn’t run on it. It displayed the Alerts box but then stalled.
(Credit: TaxAct/PCMag)Is TaxAct Safe to Use?
TaxAct collaborates with the IRS and state authorities to adhere to generally accepted procedures and practices for both physical and online security. It implements multiple safety features to ensure you're the verified account owner. The service requires complex passwords and further protects your account with multi-factor authentication, which can include up to three factors. I had to enter a password and a code that was sent to both my phone and email (even though I had checked the box to remember my device) because I had multiple accounts.
Final Thoughts
(Credit: TaxAct)
TaxAct 2026 (Tax Year 2025)
TaxAct provides extensive coverage of filing topics in an intuitive interface, along with useful help resources and a good final review process.