H&R Block offers four tiers of online tax preparation programs for the 2024 filing season: Free, Deluxe, Premium, and Self-Employed. The company also offers options of varying support from its tax professionals: do it yourself at home with the help of a tax pro, drop off your documents for a tax pro to prepare your return for you, or make an appointment to sit with the tax pro who will do your taxes.

Free Edition

The Free online edition should suit you just fine if you have only W-2 income or unemployment or retirement income, and if you rent your home. You can use this edition to add information about your dependents, too. A free state return is included.

Deluxe Edition

The Deluxe online plan is H&R Block’s next tier. It's designed for homeowners, investors, those who’ve made contributions to health savings accounts, and those who want to deduct child and dependent care expenses. It offers support for freelance and self-employed income, and it also covers home mortgage interest deductions, charitable giving deductions, and all other itemized deductions if you don’t want to claim the standard deduction.

It costs $35 and that includes free tech support, live expert help, and Block's new AI tax assistant, and a digital archive capable of storing the past six years of returns. Plan to spend an extra $37 for each state return filed.

Premium Edition

The next plan is the Premium online tier, coming in at $65, including one free state return. Additional state returns are $37.

This should meet the needs of freelancers and independent contractors who may have more than one 1099 but with deductible business expenses of less than $5,000. It also accommodates investors who own rental property or have sold stock or crypto.

Self-Employed

H&R Block also offers this online edition to serve the more than 60 million freelancers, independent contractors, and other self-employed taxpayers, including the estimated over one in 10 Americans who have taken on gig work.

Among its features are full support for common tax situations faced by self-employed individuals and small business owners. It allows for asset depreciation, business income reporting and deductions, and business expense tracking. This product costs $85 including a state return, plus an additional $37 for each additional state tax return. Like the Premium version, the Self-Employment edition also includes support for rental property owners.

Other Options

Finally, you can choose to add H&R Block’s Tax Pro Review, starting at $55 plus $37 for a state filing for the Free edition. The Deluxe package with review is $100 plus $37 for a state filing. The Premium is $160 with $37 for a state filing. This add-on tops out at $180 plus $37 for a state filing for Self-Employed plus Tax Pro Review.

In addition to all of the features and services included in the four tiers, this add-on allows for a tax professional’s review and doublecheck your return, as well as officially sign the return before filing it for you.

All programs include live technical support if you run into a problem. H&R Block offers the ever-popular W-2 capture feature so you can simply snap a pic of your form without entering all that information by hand. You can import your old returns if you did your taxes with another provider in previous years.

TurboTax is thriving, not just due to its aggressive ad campaigns but also because Intuit established itself as a do-it-yourself financial solutions company with QuickBooks, the popular accounting software, before acquiring TurboTax. TurboTax also contains convenient features for QuickBooks users.

Free Edition

This edition offers a TurboTax Free Edition that's available for only the simplest tax situations and returns, like its competitors’ free products. A state return and e-filing come free with this package as well.

~37% of taxpayers qualify. Form 1040 + limited credits only.

Deluxe Edition

The Deluxe online package is TurboTax's lowest-cost tier and its most popular. It can deal with all manner of tax credits and deductions, and it’s offered for $59. Each state return costs an additional $59.

TurboTax’s Deluxe plan also maximizes mortgage interest and property tax deductions, and it offers a “deductible service” that can help you organize charitable donations and value them correctly. It searches more than 350 sources of tax deductions and credits and covers education tax credits, along with simple expenses.

Premium Edition

The $119 Premium online plan is what you’d use if you have investments. It also covers rental property and related tax implications. You can download a return for one state for this cost, but e-filing will cost you an additional $59.

With the Premium edition, TurboTax searches for more than 500 deductions and credits and covers stocks, bonds, cryptocurrencies, and more. You can automatically import your investment data from participating financial institutions. This edition is equipped to handle over 10,000 trade transactions, which should cover the most robust investment portfolios and it can support cryptocurrency transactions. Finally, it offers personalized guidance to determine which type of investor you are and properly review your return.

Add-On Options

You can upgrade to TurboTax Assisted from within any tier or you can opt for TurboTax Assisted or TurboTax Verified pro, where a dedicated tax preparer does it all for you, preparing, signing, and filing your return. This will set you back up to $169 for Live Assisted. Working with a TurboTax Verified Pro starts at $89, with the final fee determined by preparer and the complexity of your return, as of the 2024 filing season when you file your 2023 return.

TurboTax also offers "Desktop" versions of its software, which you can download and run from your own computer. It comes in four flavors, and is priced similarly to the online versions: Basic ($50), Deluxe ($80), Premium ($115), and Home & Business ($130).

You’ve probably noticed Jackson Hewitt cubicles in the superstore if you’re a Walmart customer. Jackson Hewitt has nearly 6,000 locations, including those inside many Walmart stores. The company also offers an online filing platform.

One-Size-Fits-All Edition

Jackson Hewitt used to offer three online tiers as well: a free option for those with simple returns who only claimed the standard deduction, a $30 Deluxe edition geared toward homeowners, parents, and retirees, and a $50 Premier edition aimed at small businesses, the self-employed, and anyone with an income over $100,000. But the company has now streamlined its offerings.

As of 2023, there's a one-size-fits-all $25 package for your federal return and unlimited state returns. It offers “one simple price, for all types of filers.” Of course $25 doesn't beat free for a simple return, but the addition of unlimited state returns at no extra cost does make this a bargain in many taxpayers' circumstances.