Taxes Tax Planning Using 1040.com For Tax Filing Tax Preparation Software By William Perez Updated on December 19, 2022 Reviewed by Lea D. Uradu Fact checked by Suzanne Kvilhaug Fact checked by Suzanne Kvilhaug Suzanne received a Bachelor's Degree in Finance and has worked as a journalist for over a decade. She works as a fact-checker on a variety of financial topics for The Balance and Investopedia. learn about our editorial policies In This Article View All In This Article Cost to Prepare Tax Return What You Get For $25 Navigation and User Interface Other Features Help Error Checking Features Overall Experience of the Software Photo: elenaleonova/E+/Getty Images 1040.com is a U.S-based tax preparation software company. It claims to have processed over a 150 million tax returns over the past 10 years through its online and professional resources. In the past, 1040.com has also been associated with the IRS Free File Alliance, to help qualifying tax filers file their income tax returns for free. However, 1040.com was not a Free File Alliance participant in 2021. Cost to Prepare Tax Return 1040.com charges a flat $25 income tax filing fee, and that includes both federal and state tax filing. You can create an account, log in and even preview your completed tax return for free. You would need to pay before your return is actually submitted. There are additional services too, but they come at a cost. For $24.95, you can opt to pay 1040.com with the tax refund you get, or for $29.95 you could purchase assistance from a third-party (Protection Plus) in case of an IRS audit. What You Get For $25 Unlike a lot of tax software out there that charges additional fee for state taxes, 1040.com's $25 rate includes both federal and state tax returns. But 1040.com makes some interesting claims: Maximum Refund Guarantee: The company states that if a filer is able to generate a high refund or lower tax bill using another service, 1040.com would refund any money the filer paid ($25) by the user for 1040.com’s services.100% Accuracy Guarantee:1040.com says it will reimburse a user any penalty or interest levied by the IRS on the user for a mistake on 1040.com’s part. Navigation and User Interface To start off you need to create an account with 1040.com. The software begins with a questionnaire about types of income. Based on those answers, the software selects which data input screens to display during the preparation process. After income, users will provide information on dependents, deductions & credits, health care, and other tax situations. The process for inputting your information follows the headlines on the sidebar. You can input information on your income as you receive it and save it to the system for later use. Simply input what you have and then sign out and come back later. Once you have provided all of the necessary information you will have the chance to review a PDF copy of your federal return. From there you will move on to the state taxes. The state portion usually takes less time since information is retrieved from the federal filing. 1040.com does not have any restrictions by state so all states are free for users that meet the requirements. Once you are through the questionnaire you will have the option to preview your tax return and pay for the service. Note 1040.com recommends setting up a direct deposit to get your refunds in the fastest way. The company also provides notifications on the acceptance of the return. It has resources to check status of the e-file and to track your refund. Other Features A free tax calculator provided by 1040.com is a helpful resource that can help get a broad estimate of your taxes based on basic questions you provide answers to. Its a tad lengthy with roughly about 40 questions, but those are all what you would expect to answer while filing your actual return. Each question is accompanied by a helpful pop-up clarifying definition or terms mentioned in the question. 1040.com also offers plenty of other free and educational resources for users to browse through prior to signing up for an account. Help The service has hyperlinks throughout the step-by-step process which provides pertinent information for users on the displayed topic. Additionally, 1040.com has a couple ways to get help through the software service. Users can search the knowledge base or contact support through email. Error Checking Features The system will identify errors if any are flagged and provide the user with the ability to go directly to the item in question for revisions. The software also produces a preview of the federal and state tax forms via PDF download for the user to manually review the tax return. Overall Experience of the Software 1040.com offers nearly all of the same services you would expect from competitors and the service is reliable and user friendly. The system is familiar and follows industry standards so nearly anyone can be comfortable using it with or without previous self-preparation experience. The help functions are pretty decent offering live chat access but no phone discussions. We also like that 1040.com provides PDF files of federal and state tax forms before filing or paying anything. Was this page helpful? Thanks for your feedback! Tell us why! Other Submit Sources The Balance uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read our editorial process to learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy. 1040.com. "Online tax filing powered by humans and 100% US-based." Free File Alliance. "Free File Alliance Members." 1040.com. "$25 Just one simple price. Every feature included for everyone." 1040.com. "Our guarantees stand by you." 1040.com. "Truly simple tax filing is here to stay." 1040.com. "Tax Calculator."