You've probably heard of Liberty Tax, thanks to the company's large physical presence, but not everyone does their taxes in person. Liberty also offers tax preparation software that handles self-employment categories well and checks your return as you go. That said, Liberty is more expensive than top competitors, it doesn't let you import several common forms, and it really needs to upgrade its help tools and user experience. Intuit TurboTax provides superior guidance in a more user-friendly interface for less money, so it earn our Editors' Choice award. FreeTaxUSA, another Editors' Choice winner, lets you file your federal return for free and supports all major forms and schedules.
How Much Does Liberty Tax Cost?
The Basic tier of Liberty Tax ($57.95 federal, currently $47.95) 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. The Deluxe option ($77.95 federal, currently $67.95) supports dependents, itemized deductions, and investment or retirement income. It's for taxpayers with taxable income under $100,000. I tested the Premium tier ($97.95 federal, currently $87.95), which covers farm, real estate, and rental income, along with self-employment. You must 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.
File Your Taxes for Free (or Very Cheap): These Online Tax Services Save You Money
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 (formerly Credit Karma Tax), 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 or report foreign earned income. Another affordable option is FreeTaxUSA, which is free for all-inclusive federal returns and charges $14.99 per state return. With these services (especially Cash App Taxes), you sacrifice some help resources, which you are likely to need at some point. H&R Block and TurboTax are especially good when it comes to help and have lower starting prices than Liberty Tax.
Getting Started With Liberty Tax
Liberty Tax breaks down complicated IRS forms and schedules into smaller, manageable chunks. You don't see the official documents until you finish and print them. The site takes on the persona of an in-office tax preparer and asks you a lengthy series of questions. It requests personal information first and then shows lists of the income, deductions, and credits that you can report. You can either select the topics relevant to you or let the site walk you through every section.
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I learned from a chat help session that if you don’t indicate early on that you’re going to visit a specific topic, it will not appear in the landing page lists. You can find it by searching for it, but competitors include all topics in a section regardless of whether you indicate you need it. They usually put them at the bottom of the page, below active topics, but they’re there.
As you work your way through multistep wizards, you provide answers by entering data in fields, choosing options from drop-down lists, and clicking buttons. You can't import data from 1099s and W-2s like with competitors, so you have to type everything in manually.
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.
What's It Like to Use Liberty Tax?
Besides having an exceptionally plain user interface, Liberty Tax has way too many pages with a single question, which wastes space and adds to prep time. Other pages, like the Schedule C, are lengthy (more on that later). The site also uses some nonstandard conventions, one of which cost me at least a half hour in data entry time. It requires you to save some pages manually, too. This means you might have to go back and save if you want to open the site's separate help section. All competitors, except for Jackson Hewitt, save automatically. 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."
Liberty Tax logged me out while I was actively entering data on a lengthy business page that could take hours to complete if you have a lot of expenses. It didn’t warn me that it was signing off or give me the option to stay on the page like competitors. I didn’t realize it had logged me out until I tried to save the Schedule C page, which involves a lot more than just expenses.
Another unusual feature: When you log into the site, it takes you to the File Now page instead of asking if you want to pick up where you left off, like TaxAct and others. That eats up more time. These operational problems—and more—have persisted for years.
What Kind of Help Does Liberty Tax Offer?
Liberty Tax’s help resources are in short supply. You can read FAQs, chat with or send email questions to technical support specialists, or enter words or phrases in a search box. Search results give you little more than links to forms. 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.
Occasionally, the site breaks out topics and provides additional information. For example, it asks questions to help you determine your filing status. This depth occurs 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.
How Does Liberty Tax Deal With Self-Employment?
Liberty Tax provides comprehensive interview content for self-employment topics. It supports Schedule C and covers subjects like the 1099-MISC, 1099-NEC, business use of home, and vehicle expenses. The site does this in a slightly different order than competitors, but it eventually covers all the basics.
LibertyTax handles expenses well. It shows a brief description of each category (which is more than some competitors do) and allows you to create lists of the specific purchases you made in each category, such as paper and postage under Office Expenses. It tallies them for each, which no other site does. I wish the site carried this kind of scrupulous recordkeeping over into other areas. For example, I encountered a field that asked for all medical expenses other than health insurance premiums; competitors break this down into a more manageable task.
Does Liberty Tax Check Your Return?
Liberty Tax checks for errors on every page and doesn't let you advance if you don't complete the current one. As such, the final review is unlikely to find any data errors. It has a good review process, though, listing all the forms you completed and allowing you to revisit them or search for additional forms you think you apply. When I ran the review, it told me that my dependent’s Social Security number was the same as someone else’s on my return. It supplied a link to get there, but the Social Security number field was blank, which shouldn’t have been the case. Once I entered the number, I could return to the filing pages.
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 socket 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.
Can You Do Your Taxes on Your Phone With Liberty Tax?
Liberty Tax doesn't have a standalone mobile tax app, but you can complete and file a 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. Still, I preferred working on my phone because the mobile version's interface doesn’t have as much empty space.
Verdict: Capable Tax Prep, But You Can Do Better
If you have used Liberty Tax in the past, it continues to get the job done. The site covers all the tax forms and schedules you need to file and does a good job of checking for errors as you go. However, its high price, outdated interface, and underwhelming support content mean new customers and most gig workers should look elsewhere. Our Editors’ Choice winner, TurboTax, costs a bit less, provides exceptional help, and offers a much more approachable and modern user experience. FreeTaxUSA isn't quite as robust, but it also earns our Editors' Choice award because it lets you file your federal return for free.
Liberty Tax is a competent online tax preparation service from the well-known brick-and-mortar tax preparer, but a dated interface and gaps in guidance limit its appeal.
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