Tax Season: Filing, Free Help, and Avoiding Scams
Most adult Americans spend money every year filing taxes that they didn’t need to spend — and miss credits worth real money in the process. This module covers the genuinely free ways to file, how to choose a paid preparer safely if you’d rather not do it yourself, the rights with the IRS that almost no one knows they have, the credits and deductions that most often get left on the table, and the tax-season scams worth recognizing. One caveat matters more here than anywhere else in the course: tax dollar amounts and rules change almost every year, and a number of them changed substantially under the 2025 tax law (the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act”). Every figure below is current as best as can be verified for the 2026 filing season (covering 2025 returns), but tax law is exactly the place to confirm the number yourself before relying on it — so the single most repeated instruction in this module is check the current figure at irs.gov. This is general education, not tax advice for your situation; for anything complicated, a CPA or enrolled agent earns their fee.
The genuinely free ways to file (roughly in order of who they fit)
VITA — Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (free, in person). IRS-certified volunteers prepare and file your return at no charge. It’s generally for people with income around $67,000 or less, people with disabilities, and limited-English speakers; the program has run since 1971 and is well regarded. Find a site at irs.gov/vita or call 1-800-906-9887. (The exact threshold varies by site and is updated yearly — confirm the current number when you look.)
AARP Tax-Aide (free, in person, all ages). Despite the name, it serves taxpayers of any age, with a focus on those 50-plus with low-to-moderate income; volunteers are IRS-certified. Find a site at aarp.org/taxaide.
IRS Free File (free guided software, online). A partnership between the IRS and several tax-prep companies. For the 2026 filing season, filers with adjusted gross income of $89,000 or less can use guided Free File software at no cost, through eight participating partners (each with its own age, income, or state-residency quirks; the IRS’s “find your trusted partner” tool matches you). You must start at irs.gov/freefile — going straight to a partner’s commercial site will not give you the free product. (This is the exact trap documented in ProPublica’s reporting on Intuit/TurboTax; see the Manufactured Habits module.)
MyFreeTaxes (free, from United Way). Free online filing offered by United Way for many filers; a good no-cost option to check at myfreetaxes.com.
MilTax (free, military families). Free federal and state filing for active and recently separated service members, Guard and reserves, and immediate family, through the Department of Defense.
Cash App Taxes (formerly Credit Karma Tax). Free for most filers regardless of income, including state filing in most states; not part of the official IRS Free File program. Reasonable for moderate-complexity returns — verify current features before relying on it.
The IRS has also historically offered Free File Fillable Forms (the electronic equivalents of the paper forms, with no income limit) for confident self-filers; confirm whether it’s offered this season at irs.gov/freefile, as the free-filing options shift year to year.
Note on what’s not here: the IRS ran a fully government-operated free tool called Direct File as a pilot in 2024 and 2025, but it has been discontinued and is not available for the 2026 filing season (see the “When You Genuinely Cannot Pay” module).
Choosing a paid preparer safely
If you’d rather hire someone, a few official rules protect you (IRS, Choosing a Tax Professional; IRS, Topic No. 254):
Anyone paid to prepare your federal return must have a PTIN (Preparer Tax Identification Number), must sign the return, and must put their PTIN on it. A preparer who won’t sign is a “ghost” preparer — a serious red flag, and one of the IRS’s listed scams.
Credentials signal training and representation rights. CPAs, enrolled agents (EAs), and attorneys can represent you before the IRS on any matter, including an audit (enrolled agents are licensed by the IRS specifically for taxes). The IRS keeps a free, searchable Directory of Federal Tax Return Preparers at IRS.gov/chooseataxpro, searchable by ZIP code or name.
Walk away from any preparer who bases their fee on the size of your refund or offers to route your refund into their own account, promises a bigger refund than anyone else before seeing your documents, asks you to sign a blank or incomplete return, or won’t sign the return or give you a copy. These are the IRS’s own red flags for preparer fraud — and you are the one left holding the bill when an inflated return unravels. Paying a good preparer is not a failure, and filing for free when your return is simple is not being cheap; the right choice matches how complex your return is and what your time and peace of mind are worth.
The W-4 — what most people get wrong
Your W-4 tells your employer how much federal tax to withhold from each paycheck. Most people fill it out once at hire and never touch it again — a mistake. A big refund means you over-withheld and gave the government an interest-free loan all year; a big balance due means you under-withheld. The aim of the W-4 is to make those roughly cancel, so your withholding lands close to your actual tax. Revisit it when you marry, divorce, or your spouse starts or stops working; have or adopt a child; start or stop a side job; buy a home; or get a large raise. The IRS’s free Tax Withholding Estimator (search for it at irs.gov) walks you through the math in about 15 minutes.
Standard deduction vs. itemizing
Every filer chooses either the standard deduction (a flat amount set by filing status) or to itemize (list specific deductible expenses) — whichever is larger. Since the 2017 tax law roughly doubled the standard deduction, the large majority of taxpayers now take it. For the 2025 tax year the standard deduction is about $15,750 (single) and $31,500 (married filing jointly), with an additional amount for filers 65-plus or blind — and the 2025 law also added a new temporary $6,000 deduction for taxpayers 65 and older (phasing out at higher incomes, in effect 2025–2028). These amounts are indexed, so confirm the current year’s figure.
Itemizing only wins if your itemized deductions exceed the standard deduction. The common ones: state and local taxes (SALT), mortgage interest (on up to $750,000 of mortgage principal), charitable donations, and medical expenses above 7.5% of AGI. The big recent change is the SALT cap: the 2017 law capped the SALT deduction at $10,000, but the 2025 law raised it to $40,000 (for 2025 through 2029, phasing back down for incomes above roughly $500,000 and reverting to $10,000 in 2030). That single change makes itemizing newly worthwhile for some homeowners in high-tax areas who’d defaulted to the standard deduction for years — so if you pay substantial state income or property tax, it’s worth re-running the comparison. (The 2025 law also added new above-the-line deductions for some workers — for qualifying tips and overtime, and interest on a loan for a new U.S.-assembled car — each temporary and income-limited; confirm eligibility at irs.gov.)
The credits people miss
Credits cut your tax dollar for dollar, which makes them more valuable than a deduction of the same size, and some are refundable (they can pay you even if you owe no tax). The amounts and income limits below are updated regularly — confirm the current year at the IRS's Credits and Deductions for Individuals hub. The ones most often overlooked:
Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) — for low-to-moderate-income working people and families; often worth thousands, and a large share of eligible people never claim it.
Child Tax Credit — for parents of qualifying children, currently $2,200 per child (2025 onward, indexed), partially refundable.
Credit for Other Dependents — up to $500 for dependents who don’t qualify for the Child Tax Credit (older children, a dependent parent).
Saver’s Credit — up to $1,000 per filer ($2,000 for a couple) for low-to-moderate-income retirement-account contributions. (Note: this is scheduled to be replaced by a government “Saver’s Match” beginning in 2027 — confirm the current rule.)
American Opportunity Credit and Lifetime Learning Credit — for higher-education costs.
Child and Dependent Care Credit — for childcare that lets you work (the 2025 law made this more generous; see the Major Life Events module).
Premium Tax Credit — for ACA-marketplace health coverage. Important: the temporarily enhanced subsidies expired at the end of 2025 and the rules for repaying excess credits changed for 2026, so amounts may be very different from recent years — check healthcare.gov and irs.gov.
Energy credits — mostly ending. This is a major recent reversal: the 2025 law terminated most of the consumer clean-energy credits early. The electric-vehicle credits (new and used) ended for vehicles bought after September 30, 2025, and the home credits for solar, heat pumps, and energy-efficient improvements ended for expenditures after December 31, 2025. So for 2026 and beyond, assume these are largely gone, and verify any transition rules for a 2025 purchase at irs.gov.
If you owe and can’t pay
The most important thing to know about owing the IRS: they will almost always work with you, and almost everyone qualifies for a payment plan. The worst move is to ignore the notices.
Short-term payment plan — for balances under $100,000, up to 180 days to pay in full, with no setup fee (interest and penalties still accrue until paid).
Long-term payment plan (installment agreement) — for balances of $50,000 or less; you can set it up online (the IRS now allows terms up to about 10 years), with a setup fee of roughly $22 to $178 depending on how you apply (waived or reduced for low-income filers — generally those with income at or below 250% of the federal poverty level). Once a plan is approved, the IRS generally won’t levy, and the failure-to-pay penalty is cut in half.
Offer in Compromise — settling the debt for less than the full amount in cases of genuine inability to pay. It’s real but not easy: acceptance rates are historically well under half (often cited around 30–40% of applications). Use the free OIC Pre-Qualifier tool at irs.gov before applying.
Currently Not Collectible — a temporary pause on collection if your income barely covers basic living expenses (the debt and interest remain, but enforcement stops).
What not to do: ignore IRS notices. Penalties and interest grow, and the IRS can eventually levy bank accounts and garnish wages without a court judgment (after the required notices). It is far more reasonable when you engage — the number is 1-800-829-1040.
Be very wary of “tax relief” companies advertising that they’ll “settle your IRS debt for pennies on the dollar.” Many charge large up-front fees and deliver nothing better than what you could get yourself by calling the IRS or hiring a local enrolled agent or CPA; the FTC has brought enforcement actions against several of the biggest.
Self-employment and 1099 income
Any income not on a W-2 — freelance, gig, a side hustle, contractor work — comes with self-employment tax duties. (The Self-Employment & Gig Income module covers this in depth; the headline surprises:)
Self-employment tax: 15.3%. On top of income tax, you owe 15.3% in Social Security and Medicare tax on net self-employment earnings (12.4% Social Security up to an annual wage cap, plus 2.9% Medicare). A W-2 employee pays half of this (7.65%) while the employer pays the other half; the self-employed pay both halves — though you deduct the employer-equivalent half.
Quarterly estimated taxes. If you’ll owe more than $1,000 for the year, the IRS expects estimated payments roughly four times a year (around April 15, June 15, September 15, and January 15); missing them triggers an underpayment penalty.
Deductible business expenses — home office, software, supplies, business mileage, business meals (generally 50%), professional development, and more. Keep real records: receipts, a mileage log, and a separate bank account for business activity.
Form 1099-K. Payment platforms (PayPal, Venmo for business, Etsy, Uber, etc.) report your income to the IRS. After several years of a threatened drop to $600, the 2025 law restored the threshold to over $20,000 and more than 200 transactions on a platform — but you owe tax on the income whether or not a form is issued, so assume it’s visible.
Most self-employed people with meaningful income come out ahead after a one-time consultation with a CPA or enrolled agent (often roughly $200 to $500) to set up the right structure and bookkeeping.
Set up your IRS online account before you need it
Almost no one does this until they have a problem — do it ahead of time at irs.gov/account. It shows your current balance, past returns, payment history, tax records and transcripts, and lets you set up a payment plan. A roughly five-minute setup that saves hours later.
State rule — state income tax and state filing. What varies: whether you owe state income tax at all (a handful of states have none), how your state treats the new federal tips/overtime/senior deductions (some states “decouple” and add that income back), and what free state-filing help exists. Where to check: your state Department of Revenue (search “[your state] department of revenue free file”), since the free federal options above don’t always include a free state return.
Tax-season scams to recognize
Tax season is scam season, and the schemes keep evolving — the IRS’s 2026 list highlights a sharp rise in AI-generated voices, spoofed caller ID, and fake-IRS texts and DMs with links or QR codes (IRS, Dirty Dozen tax scams for 2026). Almost all of them break against one fact:
The IRS generally contacts you by mail first. It does not cold-call to demand immediate payment, it does not threaten arrest, and it never asks to be paid in gift cards, cryptocurrency, or wire transfer.
So if a “call from the IRS” is urgent, threatening, and wants an odd form of payment right now, it’s a scam — full stop. Other current schemes to recognize: phishing and smishing (emails, texts, or DMs posing as the IRS, often with links or QR codes — don’t click, and report them to phishing@irs.gov); “ghost” preparers (above); refund-inflation schemes that tell you to overstate withholding or understate income to manufacture a bigger refund (that’s fraud, and you’re liable); a bogus “self-employment tax credit” pushed on social media; and “pennies on the dollar” tax-debt ads — “Offer in Compromise mills” that charge steep fees and over-promise (the Offer in Compromise program is real and can genuinely help some people who can’t pay — check your own eligibility for free at irs.gov, without a mill). When something feels off, the move is simple: stop, don’t click or pay, and reach the IRS yourself through IRS.gov (you can report scams at IRS.gov/SubmitATip).
The honest limit
This module is general tax education, not tax advice for your situation, and it can’t account for your specific facts. Tax figures and rules change yearly — several changed sharply under the 2025 law — so every dollar amount here should be confirmed at irs.gov for the current year before you rely on it. For a complicated return, a self-employment structure, an audit, or a tax debt, the right help is a CPA or enrolled agent, the IRS’s free Taxpayer Advocate Service if you’re stuck in the system, or a Low Income Taxpayer Clinic if you qualify. This page points you to the free tools and the real options; it doesn’t replace personalized advice.
Key takeaways
You can very likely file for free. VITA and AARP Tax-Aide (in person), IRS Free File (AGI ≤ $89,000, started at irs.gov/freefile), MyFreeTaxes, and others exist — many people pay for software they didn’t need.
Tune your W-4 and don’t over-withhold; a big refund is an interest-free loan to the government, not a windfall.
Most people take the standard deduction (~$15,750 single / $31,500 joint for 2025), but the SALT cap jumped from $10,000 to $40,000 under the 2025 law, so homeowners in high-tax areas should re-check whether itemizing now wins.
Don’t leave credits on the table — EITC, the $2,200 Child Tax Credit, the $500 Credit for Other Dependents, the Saver’s Credit, and education and care credits — but know that most consumer energy/EV credits were terminated in late 2025, and ACA subsidy rules changed for 2026.
If you owe, engage — don’t hide. Almost everyone qualifies for a payment plan (short-term under $100k with no fee; installment agreements up to ~10 years); avoid predatory “tax relief” firms; and if you have 1099 income, plan for the 15.3% self-employment tax and quarterly estimates. Above all, confirm every figure at irs.gov.
Hire help safely, and know the scams. A paid preparer must have a PTIN and sign your return — a “ghost” preparer who won’t is a red flag — and the IRS contacts you by mail first and never demands gift cards, crypto, or wire transfer, so an urgent, threatening “IRS” call or text is always a scam.
Educational disclaimer: This page provides general financial education for a general audience in the United States. It is not individualized tax, legal, or financial advice. Tax laws, dollar thresholds, credits, and deductions change every year — and several changed substantially under the 2025 law — and they vary by state. Confirm all current figures and your eligibility at irs.gov (and healthcare.gov for marketplace credits) before relying on them. For a complex return, self-employment, an audit, or a tax debt, consult a CPA or enrolled agent, the IRS Taxpayer Advocate Service, or a Low Income Taxpayer Clinic. Date-sensitive figures were verified against official or primary sources as of June 2026 for the 2026 filing season (2025 returns); confirm the current-year numbers before relying on them.