Best freelance tax software: true costs for Schedule C filers

Bottom line

For most solo freelancers filing one Schedule C and one state return, FreeTaxUSA is the best freelance tax software on cost, because federal returns (including Schedule C and Schedule SE) are $0 and each state return is $15.99. Paying $160 or more extra for a product with expert help only makes sense if it saves you more hours than that price gap divided by your effective hourly rate (net business income divided by every hour you worked, billable or not).

Prices and dates in this entry

All prices here are for tax year 2025 returns (filed in 2026) and were checked on 14 October 2026. Software for tax year 2026, which you file in the 2027 season, has no published prices yet. Vendors usually raise prices as a season goes on, so treat these figures as relative costs, not quotes. If you are on extension for your 2025 return, your deadline is 15 October 2026.

What the software has to handle

A freelance return is not a simple Form 1040. At minimum, the product you pay for needs to cover:

• Schedule C, which reports your business profit or loss
• Schedule SE, the self-employment tax form, required if your net self-employment earnings are $400 or more
• 1099-NEC, 1099-MISC and 1099-K entry or import
• Form 8829 if you claim a home office
• Every state where you earned income

That rules out several free tiers. TurboTax Free Edition is for simple Form 1040 returns only and excludes business and 1099-NEC income. H&R Block’s free online tier excludes self-employment, 1099 and Schedule C income.

Check product names too. Many ranking lists still recommend TurboTax Self-Employed, which Intuit discontinued in tax year 2023 along with Premier. Do It Yourself Premium replaced both. QuickBooks Self-Employed has also gone, replaced by QuickBooks Solopreneur.

The options, by situation

Lowest cost for a standard return: FreeTaxUSA

FreeTaxUSA charges $0 for federal returns for everyone, with no income limits. That covers 1099-NEC, 1099-MISC, 1099-K, Schedule C, Schedule SE and Form 8829. State returns are $15.99 each. The trade-off is that you do the work yourself, including categorizing expenses and deciding what qualifies as a deduction.

Free, with hard limits: Cash App Taxes

Cash App Taxes files federal and state returns free, including for self-employed filers and side gigs. You have to file through the Cash App mobile app. It does not support income earned in more than one state, part-year or nonresident state returns, or business returns (S corps, C corps, partnerships, multi-member LLCs). If you moved during the year or earned income in two states, it is not an option.

Mid-price self-employed tiers: TaxSlayer and TaxAct

TaxSlayer Self-Employed costs $74.99 federal plus $47.99 per state, according to the company’s own pricing pages. Lower figures on some third-party sites appear to be older or discounted prices.

TaxAct Self-Employed costs $109.99 plus a state fee at its late-season price. Xpert Assist (help while you file) adds $45. TaxAct includes a $100k Accuracy Guarantee covering software errors.

Tax pro help included: H&R Block

H&R Block Self-Employed online costs $130 federal plus $49 per state, so $179 for a freelancer filing in one state. Every paid tier includes unlimited help from a tax pro plus “AI Tax Assist.”

Top of the price range: TurboTax

TurboTax Do It Yourself Premium costs $139 federal, with state extra. It is the cheapest TurboTax online product that covers all of Schedule C, and it can photograph and auto-fill 1099-NEC and 1099-K forms. Expert Assist Premium costs $209 federal plus state and includes unlimited expert help and an expert review before you file. TurboTax says its prices depend on the date you print or e-file and can change without notice.

Bookkeeping and a CPA in one subscription: Keeper

Keeper combines bookkeeping and filing in an annual plan:

• Standard ($199 a year): federal plus up to two states, with a review and signature from a CPA (certified public accountant)
• Premium ($399 a year): adds quarterly tax planning, audit protection, three or more states, and amended or late returns
• Business ($1,199 a year): S corp and partnership returns
• Bookkeeping only: $20 a month

Every plan has a 14-day free trial. If you only want a bookkeeping app to feed whichever filing software you choose, QuickBooks Solopreneur costs $20 a month or $215 a year.

Cost comparison: one Schedule C, one state

Tax year 2025 prices, checked 14 October 2026.

Free filing now that Direct File is gone

IRS Direct File was not available in the 2026 filing season, and no future launch date has been set. Two IRS routes are still open, according to the IRS filing season announcement:

• IRS Free File guided software for 2025 AGI (adjusted gross income) of $89,000 or less, up from $84,000 for 2024. The eight partners are 1040Now, Drake (1040.com), ezTaxReturn.com, FileYourTaxes.com, On-Line Taxes, TaxAct, TaxHawk (FreeTaxUSA) and TaxSlayer.
• Free File Fillable Forms at any income level. You do the work yourself, the calculations are limited, and there is no state filing.

Free File only works for current-year returns. Before you file your tax year 2026 return, check the IRS Free File page for that year’s income limit.

The numbers: when paid help pays for itself

Effective hourly rate is the right figure for judging paid help, because hours spent on your taxes are hours you don’t bill.

Break-even hours = (price of the help option − price of the cheapest option that fits) ÷ your effective hourly rate

Assume an effective hourly rate of $40 (the figure from the worked example below) and FreeTaxUSA with one state ($15.99) as the baseline:

Time is not the only payoff. A reviewer who catches an error or a missed deduction can be worth more than the hours saved. Help that only answers questions you could look up yourself is worth very little. Match the product to how complex your return is.

Self-employment tax estimate

Self-employment tax is 15.3%: 12.4% for Social Security plus 2.9% for Medicare. The Social Security part applies only up to the wage base, which is $184,500 for 2026, capping that portion at $22,878. An extra 0.9% Medicare tax applies above $200,000 (single or head of household), $250,000 (married filing jointly) or $125,000 (married filing separately).

Simplified planning formulas for 2026:

Up to $184,500: SE tax estimate = net profit × 15.3%

Above $184,500: SE tax estimate = $22,878 + (net profit × 2.9%), plus 0.9% on income above your threshold

These deliberately give a conservative figure. Your software works out the exact amount on Schedule SE. When you calculate AGI, you can deduct the employer-equivalent half of your self-employment tax.

Example: $60,000 net profit × 15.3% = $9,180 in self-employment tax, of which half ($4,590) is deductible.

Full federal set-aside

Federal income tax comes on top of self-employment tax. The worked example assumes a single filer with no other income in tax year 2026. The QBI deduction (the 20% qualified business income deduction) and the average income tax rate are assumptions for illustration. Your software applies the real limits and rates.

State income tax is extra and depends on where you live, so check your state revenue department’s estimated tax page. This entry is general information, not tax advice. Confirm how these rules apply to you with an accountant or the IRS.

Money you actually keep

The same freelancer, worked back from billings using assumed costs. Platform fees vary a lot by marketplace (see tutoring platform fees compared and what you keep from online tutoring for two examples).

At an assumed 1,500 hours worked, the effective hourly rate is $60,000 ÷ 1,500 = $40 before tax, and $47,361 ÷ 1,500 = $31.57 after the federal set-aside. Filing software runs from $0 to a few hundred dollars a year, which is small next to the set-aside. A missed quarterly payment or a wrong Schedule SE figure costs more.

Quarterly estimated payments

You generally have to make estimated payments if you expect to owe $1,000 or more. You avoid the underpayment penalty if you pay either:

• 90% of this year’s tax, or
• 100% of last year’s tax (110% if last year’s AGI was over $150,000).

For tax year 2026, the due dates are 15 April 2026, 15 June 2026, 15 September 2026 and 15 January 2027. A due date that falls on a weekend or holiday moves to the next business day, and the same pattern repeats each year. You can also pay more often than quarterly. Of the products above, Keeper Premium is the one whose pricing page lists quarterly tax planning.

Rule changes your 2026 return must reflect

The One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which the IRS now calls the “Working Families Tax Cuts,” changed several things a freelance return touches:

• 1099-NEC and 1099-MISC threshold: up from $600 to $2,000 for payments made after 31 December 2025. You will get fewer forms for 2026 work, but all income is still reportable.
• 1099-K threshold: back to over $20,000 and over 200 transactions, applied retroactively.
• QBI deduction: the 20% deduction is now permanent, with a new $400 minimum (inflation-adjusted) if you have at least $1,000 of qualified business income from a business you actively take part in.
• Tips, overtime and car loans: self-employed people can deduct up to $25,000 of qualified tips through 2028, but not in a “specified service trade or business.” The overtime deduction is up to $12,500 ($25,000 joint), and car loan interest is deductible up to $10,000 for US-assembled vehicles bought with loans taken out after 2024.
• Equipment: 100% bonus depreciation for property acquired after 19 January 2025.
• Mileage: the 2026 business rate is 72.5¢ a mile from 1 January to 30 June and 76¢ from 1 July (the 2025 rate was 70¢). Your tax year 2026 return needs both rates, so make sure your mileage log or tracking app splits trips by date before you import it.

Copy-and-paste template

With the 1099-NEC threshold at $2,000, smaller clients may not send a form. Send this in early January so your records match theirs:

Subject: 2026 payment total for tax records

Hi [Client name], to close out 2026 bookkeeping, could you confirm the total paid to [Your business name] between 1 January and 31 December 2026, and whether a Form 1099-NEC will be issued? Our records show $[amount]. Thank you, [Your name]

Scams aimed at self-employed filers

The IRS 2026 “Dirty Dozen” list includes several scams that target freelancers:

• A bogus, broad “self-employment tax credit” promoted online.
• Ghost preparers, who won’t sign your return or give you their PTIN (preparer tax identification number). You stay legally responsible for whatever they file.
• Texts and emails with QR codes that lead to fake IRS sites.
• Schemes that inflate withholding.

If you pay for human help, make sure a named preparer signs the return.

FAQ

Can freelancers use TurboTax Free Edition? No. It covers simple Form 1040 returns only and excludes business and 1099-NEC income. Do It Yourself Premium is the cheapest TurboTax online product that covers Schedule C.

Do you have to report income if a client sends no 1099-NEC? Yes. The form threshold rose to $2,000 for payments made after 31 December 2025, but all income is still reportable.

Is IRS Direct File still available? No. It was not available in the 2026 filing season and no return date has been set. IRS Free File guided software covered 2025 AGI of $89,000 or less.

Does Cash App Taxes work if you earned income in two states? No. It does not support multi-state, part-year or nonresident state returns.

Checklist

• Confirm your software covers Schedule C, Schedule SE, Form 8829 if needed, and every state you earned income in
• Work out the break-even hours before paying for a tier with live help
• Split your 2026 mileage log at 30 June (72.5¢ before, 76¢ after)
• Ask each client to confirm their 2026 payment total, whether or not they send a 1099
• Set aside your quarterly estimate and pay the tax year 2026 final installment by 15 January 2027
• Have an accountant or the IRS confirm how the rules apply to your situation