TurboTax offers a marketing gimmick where they allow you to do your taxes on the online version of TurboTax for free.  You only have to pay when you print or e-file your return.  But, who says you have to print anything?

When you have finished inputting all of your information, and TurboTax has finished crunching all of the numbers, switch to the form view where you actually are looking at an electronic version of the tax form.  Copy the numbers down onto a Form 1040 that you printed off of the IRS website, and voila.  You taxes are done, and all for free!

Obviously, if you have to generate a bunch of extra paperwork or IRS Schedules, this isn’t the method for you.  But, keep in mind that many of the worksheets that TurboTax fills out with their program are not for filing, but rather just for the taxpayer to use and keep.  So, don’t let those throw you off.

If you are just filing a Form 1040 and a Schedule A (Itemized Deductions) then you are just fine.  Even a Schedule C (Business) is not a problem so long as you have a simple one-person operation that you run out of your home.

Anything much more complicated than this is probably a little too much to trust that you are going to get all of the right forms filled in and put together.  But, this trick should cover about 80% to 90% of the people who do their taxes without a professional.