Cash App Taxes acquired Credit Karma Tax in 2020. Credit Karma was founded in 2007 to help people monitor and improve their finances. Credit Karma began offering Credit Karma Tax in 2016.
When Cash App Taxes took over Credit Karma Tax, they promised to keep the same features at the same price – free. Their tax preparation and filing services are completely free all the time with no hidden fees or up-sold features.
One key change is that you need to download the Cash App and create a free account in order to use Cash App Taxes.
Cash App Taxes (Formerly Credit Karma Tax) Features
Cash App Taxes is one of the best tax software programs, offering a variety of tax services to help every individual prepare and file their taxes online or in person.
These services include much more than what’s listed below, but these are some of the most convenient services we have found.
Help Center
Cash App Taxes has an online help center that provides assistance for technical issues as well as answers to basic preparation questions.
The search function gives you a user-friendly way to find what you need quickly without scrolling through pages of irrelevant materials. The FAQ section has comprehensive answers to the most common tax questions.
W-2 Importing
If you have a smartphone with a camera, you can import your W-2 documents. All you do is snap a photo and upload it to the system.
Cash App Taxes will read it, fill out your information and allow you to review the fields for accuracy. This is a convenient feature for preparing your tax documents online as well as on your smartphone or tablet
Prior Year Imports
You can import your previous year’s tax return from four of the major online filing systems including TurboTax, TaxAct, H&R Block and Cash App Taxes.
Tax Preparation Plans
Cash App Taxes only has one plan, and it’s free.
While other services have tiers, Cash App Taxes will allow you to file both your federal and your state returns for free with all the schedules and deductions you need. You won’t encounter any hidden fees, annoying upselling or income limits.
While other filing services may upgrade you automatically and without your knowledge as you select things that aren’t included, Cash App Taxes is always free. This makes it a pain-free, hassle-free experience for everyone.
Pros
Tax Audit Services
Cash App Taxes provides one year free of their audit defense program in case you get audited.
Cash App Taxes partners with a third-party service called Tax Protection Plus to offer this service. Tax Protection Plus is experienced in providing this protection because they work with many other tax services too.
If you have questions about what to do when you get audited, you can contact Tax Protection Plus, and they’ll walk you through it. They can help you review your documents and act on your behalf in meetings and negotiations with the authorities.
Ease of Use
Cash App Taxes’ user interface efficiently guides you through the process, so it’s easy and convenient.
Cash App Taxes uses the answers you provide about your finances and personal information like marital status, employment and other deductions to determine what sections you need to complete.
You can fill out each section in order or skip around as needed. Cash App Taxes will also prompt you to enter additional information if it suspects you need more than the standard deduction entries.
When you’re ready to file, Cash App Taxes will prompt you to enter missing information and verify everything is correct. It can walk you through reviewing each section, after which it makes it easy to submit at the click of a button.
Maximum Refund Guarantee
Cash App Taxes offers a maximum refund guarantee, just like most other competitors. If you prepare your return with another provider and they estimate you’ll receive a bigger refund, Cash App Taxes will give you up to $100.
The preparation service is already free, so that’s a huge offer.
Cons
Credit Karma’s tax services have only been around since 2016, and Cash App Taxes only took over in 2020, so they’re relatively new compared to other providers.
They may not support the more complicated tax situations that some people might need.
Cash App Taxes is a bare-bones system without the same capabilities as other competitors.
They don’t have some of the same complex features or tools others may provide. However, with the simple functions and user interface, many users may find they prefer filing their taxes this way because it’s not complicated or hard to understand.
If you live in one state but work in another, the site does not provide a way to file that state’s income tax. Some of the complexities of military tax filing might be better suited to other platforms.
You must download the Cash App in order to use Cash App Taxes, and some may find that a hassle.
It can also be difficult to use Cash App Taxes if you’ve never filed your taxes on your own before and have expert-level questions the system can’t answer. Complicated situations may not be available, but it is one of the best services for small business owners to file for free.
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John says
Wanted to share my experience when CashApp took over Credit Karma taxes — others’ mileage may vary. This is a review I posted elsewhere, as well.
Credit Karma was great for tax preparation in the past, but they recently were picked up by CashApp and this requires joining CashApp. (You can use a phone or a PC, apparently.) Well, I didn’t want to join CashApp, so I did my taxes myself.
When I went to access my previous years’ documents, they weren’t available from my Credit Karma account. I literally had to email some address at the domain squareup.com, and they requested a slew of personal data including a PIN I don’t have. I wish that I’d simply downloaded the tax docs and stored them locally rather than trusting Credit Karma to provide them. For some reason, normally logging in to Credit Karma with a password is now insufficient and you have to go through some song and dance to get your own documentation.
Moral: Always store a local copy of anything important and never trust a third party to keep it for you.
What’s worse, I did a quick check and have read several complaints about the CashApp tax process having software and/or payment issues.
This reduced my trust in Credit Karma and reinforces my reluctance to trust CashApp.