AARP will do your taxes for free.

[DeniseNJ]

AARP has volunteers who will sit with you at the library and do your taxes for free.  You don't have to be a member or even over 50 and there's no income limit.  I was really surprised.  They had a hard time with mine because my tax forms from vanguard didn't show that my conversion from my trad IRA to a Roth was supposed to be "tax free," since it was a non-deductible trad IRA done within a few days of each other so the "growth" was a few cents.  But still, I thought it was a really great service.

https://www.aarp.org/money/taxes/aarp_taxaide/locations/

[merula]

Great point! There are a lot of other places that offer this service through grants from the IRS. Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) focuses on taxpayers with incomes of $64,000 or less and Tax Counseling for the Elderly (TCE) focuses on those 60+, but sponsoring organizations (like AARP in this case) can use their discretion.

I've been a volunteer tax preparer for years (taking a break this year for personal stuff), and it's incredibly rewarding. I volunteer with an organization that primarily supports the Latino community in a neighborhood with a lot of predatory tax preparers, and so every time I did someone's taxes it was saving them $400. It's really not hard and I would recommend it for anyone here looking for a volunteer opportunity. (It helped me that it was seasonal and only in the dead of winter.)

[MDM]

...there's no income limit.
...it was a non-deductible trad IRA....

While technically there is no specific income limit, both VITA and Tax-Aide are intended for people with "low to moderate" incomes.  Those with incomes high enough to require use of the backdoor Roth process should generally use another method for filing taxes, and leave those appointment slots for people with those lower incomes.

[seattlecyclone]

...there's no income limit.
...it was a non-deductible trad IRA....

While technically there is no specific income limit, both VITA and Tax-Aide are intended for people with "low to moderate" incomes.  Those with incomes high enough to require use of the backdoor Roth process should generally use another method for filing taxes, and leave those appointment slots for people with those lower incomes.

I think the local agencies administering the program have some choices about what types of situations they'll support. I volunteered at a VITA site and we'd definitely turn people away if their income was too high. We also weren't supposed to help people with capital gains income even though the standard VITA volunteer training we had to do did cover how to handle that.

[merula]

Tax Counseling for the Elderly (TCE) does not have an income limit, only an age limit and some specific out-of-scope forms.

My VITA site, which is a mid-size non-profit, will let employees, volunteers and their friends/family do their taxes with the same quality review as we do for our clients, so I'm not at all surprised that AARP has decided to extend this to members. I'm sure that's about the same small percentage of people who fall outside of the program target clientele as AARP members who are under 60.

Also, given that my site deals with a lot of immigrants, we offer ITIN applications as well, which is specifically out of the VITA scope. I think that means it's not covered by the grant? It is a different staff member who coordinates it.

If anyone here meets the VITA income/form guidelines and wants free DIY taxes, check out: https://www.irs.gov/filing/free-file-do-your-federal-taxes-for-free

Be warned, though, if you're outside the 12 states for Direct File and need to use a partner site, most of them will try to upsell you on their paid versions. This is incredibly unethical and why I will never give them another dime, but there IS a free option if you click around enough. (I personally use Free Fillable Forms and submit my state taxes on paper.)

[terran]

(I personally use Free Fillable Forms and submit my state taxes on paper.)

I used to do do the same, then last year I moved states and didn't want to deal with splitting income between two states, so I used OLT.com, which I like because they make it pretty easy to see the actual forms while filling things out. Free federal + $10/state. They do a very soft upsell but it's only $8 and only for audit support kind of things, no difference in forms. They also took over development of Free Fillable Forms when turbotax/intuit dropped it at the last minute a year or two ago, so I feel pretty good about supporting them.

[merula]

Thanks for the tip; $10 isn't all that much more than the postage for the full filing ends up being, so I'll check it out.

I live and work in my state's capital city, I have to walk by the Dept of Revenue offices in order to get to the post office to mail the envelope because it's so large, but DOR couldn't possibly offer a drop-off slot. I swear it's the lack of really basic, common-sense amenities that drives people out of city centers. It costs the same for me to mail this a couple of blocks as it would to mail from Honolulu.

[DeniseNJ]

(I personally use Free Fillable Forms and submit my state taxes on paper.)

I used to do do the same, then last year I moved states and didn't want to deal with splitting income between two states, so I used OLT.com, which I like because they make it pretty easy to see the actual forms while filling things out. Free federal + $10/state. They do a very soft upsell but it's only $8 and only for audit support kind of things, no difference in forms. They also took over development of Free Fillable Forms when turbotax/intuit dropped it at the last minute a year or two ago, so I feel pretty good about supporting them.

AARP had no income or age limit or membership requirement.  However, some types of stuff is outside their scope.  I ended up using OLT.  It was easier than I thought. Also, when you get the federal package they lower the cost of the state return and since I had two states it was actually about the same.

But I just wanted to get the word out since AARP will actually sit with you, ask you questions, and file for you.  It's a great service.

[MDM]

But I just wanted to get the word out since AARP will actually sit with you, ask you questions, and file for you.  It's a great service.

Indeed it is!