eSmart Tax Review 2023

eSmart Tax - Is It Free?

No, eSmart Tax doesn’t offer free filing options. Users will pay for both federal and state returns. You can find a screenshot of the pricing section from the site homepage below. 

Federal taxes start at $54.95 for standard pricing, but is currently going for $45.95, while state returns cost $36.95 with any version of the tax software.

What's New In 2023?

Like many competitors, eSmart Tax uses white-labeled software to help users file their returns. The look and feel of this software haven’t changed much in the last few years. However, the software has been updated to account for new tax situations, including: 

• Economic stimulus payments during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic and annual tax bracket
• Deduction
• Credit limit adjustments due to inflation

The company continues to offer Audit Assistance, where a professional from Liberty Tax will meet with a filer if they're audited. The tax professional will explain how the original return was prepared, but they make no service guarantees regarding communicating with the IRS.

It's worth noting that many of the promised features on the eSmart Tax website were unavailable during our testing or fell short of others. You can download a W-2 from some supported employers, for example, but can’t upload a PDF version.

Does eSmart Tax Make Tax Filing Easy In 2023?

In our opinion, eSmart Tax doesn’t make tax filing easy in 2023, especially compared to other products on the market. It doesn’t have the option to import prior year’s returns and W-2 forms. Even if it did have the option to import previous returns, the software doesn’t show side-by-side comparisons of the previous year.

The “audit assistance” falls short of most audit assistance guarantees. A professional will meet with a tax filer, but they don’t take up correspondence on behalf of the filer.

Putting aside these marketing "misses," the eSmart Tax software offers reasonably easy use for filers with extremely basic returns. Users can transcribe information from their tax forms and painlessly claim the most common deductions and credits.

However, filers with more complex filing situations should skip eSmart Tax. Active investors and real estate owners will find the biggest shortcomings. For example, figuring out how to handle rental income is a challenge, and claiming depreciation requires looking up a form from the help section.

Filers get very little feedback throughout the filing process. The only indicator is a running refund total, updated after completing each section.

eSmart Tax Features

Because the eSmart Tax uses white-labeled software shared and re-branded by multiple companies, it doesn’t have many standout features. However, these are a few helpful features that set it apart.

Interview Style Navigation

Users can decide whether to navigate through eSmart Tax using menus or following an “interview” navigation. Users answer Yes or No questions, and where relevant, eSmart Tax sends them to a tax form to complete. This style of navigation is especially useful for filers with straightforward returns.

Audit Assistance Guarantee

If a filer is audited, a tax professional from Liberty Tax will explain how the file was originally returned, what your notice means, and what you can expect during the audit process. This is honestly a pretty weak audit assistance.

On this page, we found that eSmart Tax offered "Enhanced" Audit Assistance in 2019 (this hasn’t been updated in years!) for $29.95, including actual recommendations and help sending IRS responses. But it's unclear if this add-on will be made available again to customers in 2023.

eSmart Tax Drawbacks

eSmart Tax had several problematic areas in 2023. Here are a few examples.

The Home Page

As we alluded to in the introduction, it can be hard to even know what you're getting with each option. Here's what the home page looked like at the time of our review:

For a company as large as Liberty Tax or eSmart Tax, that's unacceptable for users.

No Import Options

Despite advertisements of electronic W2 import, we could not find the option to import during our testing of the software. If it does exist, it's not intuitive or easy to find.

It appears that users cannot import W-2 forms, 1099 Forms, or prior year returns. This is an expectation for all software with premium pricing.

Not Suitable For Users With Complex Tax Situations

The eSmart Tax platform supports active traders, landlords, and self-employed people, but the software isn’t easy to use. Filers with these types of income are better off opting for alternative software.

No Way To Track Progress

eSmart Tax doesn’t provide any “feedback” or progress indicators to help filers know if they’re filing correctly. It can be tough to figure out whether you’ve missed a W-2 (if you hold multiple jobs) or failed to report certain income types without section summaries or other progress indicators.

eSmart Tax Plans And Pricing

How Does eSmart Tax Compare?

The eSmart Tax software is priced like a premium tax software, but it doesn’t function that way. We’re comparing it to bargain software like Cash App Taxes, TaxHawk, and 1040.com. 

The 1040.com software is the exact software used by eSmart Tax, but it comes in at a lower price point. In every case, we prefer Cash App Taxes or TaxHawk to eSmart Tax.

How Do I Contact eSmart Tax Support?

eSmart Tax has a small library of FAQs and articles in the software's Help section. But most of its knowledge base is embedded directly in the software.  The software’s “Tell Me More” buttons offer quick pop-ups with important tax information.

Users can also send emails or reach out on social media to get questions answered. The company also offers unlimited in-office support from tax experts at Liberty Tax locations. This includes having your prepared returns reviewed by a tax pro before you file.

Again, very basic Audit Assistance is available for all users. But that support won't go beyond helping you understand your IRS notice.

Is It Safe And Secure?

Overall, eSmart Tax keeps up with industry standards for keeping information safe and secure. The company uses encryption to protect user information in the event of a breach, and it requires multi-factor authentication to prevent person-specific hacks.

The one area where eSmart Tax is shaky is its User Agreement. The agreement indicates that filers should expect access to electronic filing until October 15th, 2015. It also references functionality that eSmart Tax hasn’t supported in years.

Aside from this issue, the site is as safe as most other tax filing sites. Users should assess all tax software risks before preparing a return with any company.

eSmart Tax FAQs

Here are the answers to a few of the questions that we get asked most often about eSmart Tax:

Can eSmart Tax help me file my crypto investments?

While eSmart Tax supports tax filing for crypto investments, it doesn’t have built-in options to make filing easy. Users must enter every crypto transaction manually. That work comes after they’ve converted from the crypto base currency to USD. Most crypto investors will want to use a free calculator like TaxBit and file their returns using TurboTax Premium.

Can eSmart Tax help me with state filing in multiple states?

Yes, eSmart Tax supports multi-state filing, but filers must pay $36.95 per state.

Does eSmart Tax offer refund advance loans?

No, eSmart Tax isn't offering refund advance loans in 2023.

eSmart Tax Features