Best Online Tax Software for Beginning Itemizers

How we picked the companies to evaluate:

NerdWallet reviewed the online packages from the four tax-software companies with the greatest market share and market presence, the latter measured by how heavily the companies are searched for on the internet. Some of these are NerdWallet partners; some are not.

How we picked which software packages to evaluate:

For this award, we considered only each company's entry-level paid software package.

How we chose the winner:

NerdWallet evaluated each company's tax-software package across the following criteria, listed in descending order of importance:
  • Ease of use and features.
  • Help and support options.
  • Price of software package.
  • Price of filing a state return.
  • Audit support options.
  • Refund options.
Each package is scored individually. In the event of a tie in overall scores, we returned to the above criteria and worked down the list: The first tiebreaker is which package has the highest raw score in ease of use and features. If still tied, which package has the highest raw score in help and support options. And so on down the list until we had a winner.

How we verified our data:

NerdWallet writers sent detailed questions to all reviewed companies. NerdWallet writers and editors also confirmed fees, rates, policies and other key features on each company's website.