Electronic Filing Service Reviewer's Comments

Electronic Filing Service, supported by CCH Incorporated, is an online electronic filing service that provides comprehensive, interactive help pages and inexpensive professional advice through their chat service.

Although the basic service includes federal electronic filing, state filing is an additional $14.95. The service requires that you pay before you can begin using their services. Whereas most services will let you use the service and begin the process of submitting your taxes before they require a fee.

Intuitive Navigation:  

The navigation in Electronic Filing Service is excellent. Unlike many products, this service lets you move from page to page, forward and backwards and it is easy to find previous pages.

Novice-Friendly:  

Electronic Filing Service offers an extensive FAQ section to help novice tax preparers. Every topic area includes a series of questions and answers; they also define common terms such as depletion. The service is easy to use and they do not post a complex pricing page like some other do.

Ease of Sign-up:  

Because this product is available online only, no download or installation is necessary. Because of this format, you are required to set up an account and so must keep your account name and password safe but handy.

Feature Set:  

Electronic Filing Services offers all of the basic features needed to file federal and state tax returns electronically. If you used the service the year before, it does have the ability to import data into the current year. It has some error checking abilities, especially in relation to medical deductions.

This service does not offer a refund/owe meter, deduction suggestions or audit warnings.

Help/Documentation/Search:  

The best feature of this product is the help information available. As mentioned above they host an exceptional FAQ area that answers many questions, in easy to understand terms. They support mail and email support as well as a chat service; however, the chat service is $4.95 per two sessions.

Summary:  

This service is a good electronic tax filings option for the price. For do-it-yourselfers, this site offers enough information to help you file your return quickly and at $34.90 for both federal and state, the price is a real bargain.