Fidelity free Turbotax offer

[Sunset]

I just finished the Fed Return and E-filed today.
What's with the question asking for 'Last Year's AGI' before they transmit ?? And why do they need my Driver's License Number ?? Seems a little excessive.

....

It's just a way to try to reduce the fake tax returns that are filed by having some verification of ID.

We have PIN numbers from the Feds and the State which we use as ID verification.

 

[audreyh1]

Yup. That’s also what I did. There’s no drawback in downloading a copy as soon as you can.

You never know how long it’s going to be available or if there is some fixed number available that get used up. This year in January they seemed to have some hiccups.

 

[jollystomper]

I just noticed that we now have the Free Turbo Tax offer. Probably because I decided to respond to their local office "can we talk?" annual inquiry and have a discussion with one of their advisors. I figured, 5+ years into retirement, cannot hurt to have another set of eyes look at what I have for free, and most of our holdings are at Fidelity. Their review was simple, no pressure, I had a reason for everything I had done, so it was mostly "just keep doing what you are doing". I guess talking to them was the "price" for getting the offer on our account.

 

[audreyh1]

I just noticed that we now have the Free Turbo Tax offer. Probably because I decided to respond to their local office "can we talk?" annual inquiry and have a discussion with one of their advisors. I figured, 5+ years into retirement, cannot hurt to have another set of eyes look at what I have for free, and most of our holdings are at Fidelity. Their review was simple, no pressure, I had a reason for everything I had done, so it was mostly "just keep doing what you are doing". I guess talking to them was the "price" for getting the offer on our account.

Yeah pretty much.

 

[FiveDriver]

I just finished the Fed Return and E-filed today (Thursday).

As a follow up question -- I got a "Transmitted Notice" in the TurboTax folder on Thursday.

But I haven't received an "Accepted Notice" yet.
Does the IRS not check their In-Box over the weekend ??

 

[RetiredHappy]

As a follow up question -- I got a "Transmitted Notice" in the TurboTax folder on Thursday.

But I haven't received an "Accepted Notice" yet.
Does the IRS not check their In-Box over the weekend ??

I think "Accepted" is done automatically, not by a human.

 

[Flieger]

I looked on Fidelity back when this thread started and the Free TT was not there. I decided to do taxes late (as I know I will be paying) then went back to Fidelity to check out if some tax forms were ready, and lo and behold, TT Premier was $5 for both Fed and State!

 

[MartyGB]

There is speculation out there that some wise guys "hacked" the site by spreading cookies to give people access. Not a true hack, but rather actual Fidelity account holders who found sites that shared magic cookies that allowed it to approve if directed to a specific site after signing into Fidelity.

In other words, cheap skate a-holes ruin it for everyone. And Fidelity had to hit the off switch for now, maybe only temporarily.

You can find fragments of the discussion somewhere on Slickdeals. It wasn't from SD specifically, but from people discussing it on their forum site. Most of the tricks have been deleted, but you can see the detritus of the discussion, including people selling their tricks.

Is anyone else concerned that someone could exploit a loophole in a financial system’s website and the Fidelity just blows it’s customers off? I had the free offer and started my taxes I had to wait to file for a few forms. When I went to file I was being charged. When I called to ask about it I was blown off by the customer service rep and a supervisor. It wasn’t until I started looking that I heard about this hack.

One person exploited a security flaw in Fidelity’s website. How do we know it wasn’t more than free Turbo Tax??