After more than a decade of TurboTax, I filed my 2025 federal return for free using Claude. My tax situation isn’t simple: married filing jointly, two children, inherited IRA distributions across two brokerages, a Roth conversion, HSA contributions and distributions, capital loss carryforwards, foreign tax credits, and Section 199A REIT dividends. The completed return ran 42 pages—Form 1040 plus Schedules 1, 3, B, and D, plus Forms 8949, 8889, 8995, and 1116. Cost: $0.
I paired Claude with IRS Free File Fillable Forms, which was unnecessary friction. Skip FFFF. Have Claude fill out the PDFs directly and mail them in. The rest of this post explains why I left TurboTax, what worked, and what to do instead.
Why I Left Intuit
Intuit has spent over $45 million on federal lobbying since 1998, including $3.5 million in 2022. Their SEC filings list fighting “governmental encroachment” as an explicit corporate goal—their term for initiatives that would make tax filing easier or free for Americans. When the IRS launched Direct File, Intuit contributed to lawmakers pushing for its elimination and donated $1 million to Trump’s 2025 inaugural committee. Direct File is now gone.
ProPublica documented how Intuit deliberately hid free filing options from search engines while marketing paid products as “free,” resulting in a $141 million settlement with state attorneys general. The FTC has separately accused them of deceptive advertising.
I stopped paying them.
The Free Filing Landscape in 2026
The IRS offers two free filing paths. If your AGI is under $89,000, eight private partners offer guided software through the IRS Free File program. My income disqualified me.
The other option is Free File Fillable Forms (FFFF), available to everyone regardless of income. It’s the electronic equivalent of blank paper forms: you select forms, fill in values, do the math, and e-file. FFFF was added to the Free File Alliance in 2009—part of the agreement under which the IRS pledged not to build its own competing system. It offers no guidance, no interview questions, no imports. As the IRS warns: “If you are not comfortable with completing a paper return, using only the forms and instructions as a guide to file a correct return, this program is not for you.”
I used it anyway. I shouldn’t have—and I’ll explain why in the practical tips below.
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