I’ve used the Excel 1040 for years (excel1040.com). Wait until April to actually file the return to make sure all the bugs are worked out, but the base version will be available in late January so you can do some scenario planning. And that means printing it out and mailing it as is - the data entry people at the IRS apparently have no problem with it.
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Just like in the previous years, if your Fidelity account is eligible for the free TurboTax software, you should see a link when you log into your account. Both online and download versions are available.
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I received a CD mailer from HRblock with FREE tax cut premium 2017… Unfortunately I already bought this year’s from Amazon. D’oh!
Any idea what are the criteria for eligibility?
I see it at the bottom of my page - thanks
Per Fidelity chat rep the requirements change every year and are based on number of trades and retail holdings (excluding “accounts such as” 401k). He said you should see the link in the “summary” but you can also look under “Accounts and Trade” -> “Tax Information”. Surprised he wasn’t aware of the actual qualification requirements, but that’s all he gave me. Maybe someone else wants to try some better social engineering.
Adding this and 3c3’s message to the wiki.
[quote=“Full_Disclosure, post:46, topic:2296, full:true”]
He said you should see the link in the “summary” but you can also look under “Accounts and Trade” -> “Tax Information”.[/quote]
The free offer shows up only on the “summary” page, NOT on the “tax information” page.
Wow, great promo Bend3r, I already bought mine too. But I think your key CD file is shareable - there have been threads in years past on SD with links to these and comparisons. Block sends out many versions of these - I’ve already trashed mine, it was again not a very good deal. The discs and mailer suggest sharing it with your friends, so it’s not quite targeted.
I’ve checked my Fidelity account, but only see the $20 off TTax promo. I’m not too surprised, my individual investment account there has never had a trade, opened it when my active 401k was there, and then used it with the FIA cash rewards, which I stopped using earlier this year.
I plan on using a pirated of either H&R or TurboTax. Why? Because those bastards successfully lobbied Congress to prevent the IRS from making filing easier and prohibiting them from sending out pre-filled forms.
So they paid Congress to make your life more difficult in order to make you want to buy their software. So F them. I won’t even pay to eFile (I always make sure I owe taxes), so I just print them out, sign, stamp and mail them.
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So you want to commit at least one crime to file your taxes? Let’s hope you don’t catch a virus in the process. Or worse.
For shame.
Which is actually more expensive than doing as I suggested above:
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Vigilante justice 
There are no real copy protections, but you need a unique or unused key for efiling. Risk of virus is small if you know what you’re doing.
I thought they let you use the software for free, you only have to pay when you want to efile?
They also block printing without paying
Every year on the old FWF I would bring up the IRS Free File option but there was seldom much interest. We are eligible for the free Turbo Tax from Fidelity but much prefer to use the IRS forms. It’s not very difficult and it’s much easier to understand how it all works.
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Yes. Maybe the lack of interest is because of the availability of the software. Answering questions appears more user-friendly. I didn’t like it though, but that might be because I’d already spent most of my life filling out the forms by hand.
At some point, maybe already (?), there will be people who have never filled out a tax form the standard way. It’s not so bad as long as one takes the time to look at the form in detail to gain an understanding of what went where and why. It’s important for tax planning.
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For the online versions only. The download versions are considered “paid”.
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There’s no separate code so I think I’d have to image or ship the disc. Unless when installing the software it refers to a code above my name on the address portion. A more specific description is its deluxe+state for free. Not great upgrade offers (24.95 for premium+ state or 39.95 for bus)
For all the versions I’ve seen and used, you don’t have to image the disk - there are no copy protections of any kind. The software is not associated with any printed key or code (that would be too expensive and pointless). You can just copy or zip the files and directories. The code might be for efiling.