Free State Income Tax E-File Options For All 50 States
On top of the free federal E-filing options, more and more states are also offering their own online income tax filing. This makes sense, as it reduces errors and saves the state from having to go through all those paper returns. Other states have partnered with some online preparers to offer free online filing for certain groups, such as the active military and those under a certain income limit.
So I decided to try and gather the information that was available for all 50 states. Some of these were hard to find! Be sure to read all the details, the offers can be confusing, and you might have to click on a specific link to qualify. Even if you don’t qualify for a free return, sometimes you can still net a cheap return by paying for the federal return and getting the state for free.
In alphabetical order (just click on the state):
| State | Restrictions |
| Alabama | Lower income wage earners, senior citizens, students, or active duty military personnel |
| Alaska | (no state income tax) |
| Arizona | Lower income wage earners, senior citizens, young adults, or active duty military personnel |
| Arkansas | Lower income wage earners, senior citizens, young adults, or active duty military personnel |
| California | California resident for the entire year |
| Colorado | No major restrictions |
| Connecticut | “If you were a resident for all of 2006 and filed a 2005 Connecticut return using a Connecticut address, you are probably eligible” |
| Delaware | (not posted yet) |
| Florida | (no state income tax) |
| Georgia | Lower income wage earners, senior citizens, young adults, active duty military personnel, or pay for federal returns |
| Hawaii | Short form only. HI does not allow State Only e-file; State return must be file with federal. No approved vendors listed yet. |
| Idaho | Lower income wage earners, senior citizens, young adults, or active duty military personnel |
| Illinois | Illinois resident for all of 2006 and more, see site |
| Indiana | You must have filed an individual return with the state of Indiana in the past. Available Feb 1st. |
| Iowa | Lower income wage earners, senior citizens, young adults, or active duty military personnel |
| Kansas | “All Kansas residents and non-residents who filed a Kansas Income tax return last year can use WebFile, even if you itemize.” |
| Kentucky | Lower income wage earners, senior citizens, young adults, or active duty military personnel |
| Louisiana | Looks to be free to all, but I don’t see any 2006 info. |
| Maine | Lower income wage earners, senior citizens, young adults, or active duty military personnel |
| Maryland | “You can use iFile if you are filing short Form 503, long Form 502 and most other Maryland tax forms.” |
| Massachusetts | Lower income wage earners, senior citizens, young adults, or active duty military personnel |
| Michigan | Lower income wage earners, senior citizens, young adults, or active duty military personnel |
| Minnesota | Lower income wage earners, senior citizens, young adults, or active duty military personnel |
| Mississippi | Low income wage earners or active duty military personnel |
| Missouri | Lower income wage earners, senior citizens, young adults, or active duty military personnel |
| Montana | Not updated yet |
| Nebraska | You must have filed a Nebraska return last year |
| Nevada | (no state income tax) |
| New Hampshire | (no state income tax) |
| New Jersey | “Most taxpayers will be able to use NJ WebFile if they were residents of New Jersey for the entire year” |
| New Mexico | Could not find much detail, but it looks free? |
| New York | not updated yet |
| North Carolina | Did not see any free options on the state page, but TurboTax says it does free filing for low income earners. |
| North Dakota | Lower income wage earners, senior citizens, young adults, or active duty military personnel |
| Ohio | Free for all. |
| Oklahoma | Lower income wage earners, senior citizens, young adults, or active duty military personnel |
| Oregon | AGI under $50k, not updated for 2006 returns yet |
| Pennsylvania | No major restrictions found |
| Rhode Island | Did not see any free options on the state page, but TurboTax says it does free filing for low income earners. |
| South Carolina | No major restrictions found |
| South Dakota | (no state income tax) |
| Tennessee | (no state income tax) |
| Texas | (no state income tax) |
| Utah | Full year residents, no itemizing, see site for details |
| Vermont | Not updated yet, but loosk like it will be for low income wage earners, senior citizens, young adults, or active duty military personnel |
| Virginia | Filed a Virginia return last year |
| Washington | (no state income tax) |
| Washington DC | Looks to be free to most, not updated yet |
| West Virginia | Lower income wage earners, senior citizens, young adults, or active duty military personnel |
| Wisconsin | Filed a Wisconsin income tax return in the past four years, see site |
| Wyoming | (no state income tax) |
Please let me know if you find any errors or changed links.
Find more in Deals & Offers, Taxes | 1/17/07, 5:01pm | Trackback
January 17th, 2007 at 9:20 pm
Very nice list well done!
Heres a question for all you tax folks though. I spent about 7 months of this year in Massachusetts and the last 5 months in Oregon. So I know that I need to file in two states, but I’m having trouble figuring out how to do it for free. (I always used Massachusetts’s free filing) Do I file once though Oregon’s and once through Mass’s or will one of them let me do it for both states. I’d also be willing to buy software (TurboTax, etc.) but it seems that its absurdly expensive to file in two states ($30 extra).
So what have others done?
January 18th, 2007 at 2:49 am
Well, you’re definitely going to have to file two Part-Time Resident returns. Some software packages let you file multiple state returns but make you pay for each separate e-file. One solution that I did was simply print it out and mail it in instead of e-filing. Just cost me under $1 for postage. So if you only get one free state e-file, just print the other one out.
January 18th, 2007 at 3:55 pm
California state tax return does not let you file if you have capital gains or losses. That excludes anyone with mutual funds or stocks. This restriction is there because of heavy lobbying from Intuit (turbo tax).
What a shameless stunt
January 19th, 2007 at 8:30 am
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January 19th, 2007 at 9:54 am
Try going to http://www.militaryonesource.com. If you are related to someone in the military, you might be able to use H&R Block. Register with Military OneSource first, then follow the H&R Block link.
January 24th, 2007 at 4:07 am
[…] Free State Income Tax E-File Options […]
March 7th, 2007 at 7:52 pm
[…] Free State Income Taxes For All 50 States […]
March 22nd, 2007 at 9:15 pm
[…] MyMoneyBlog was nice enough to list all of the free options for State Income tax returns for free. […]