Every January the same question lands in my inbox from store owners: what is the cheapest way to file taxes without screwing it up? e-file.com keeps coming up because it advertises free federal filing and a self-employed tier that costs a fraction of what TurboTax charges. The advertised number and the number you actually pay are two different things, and for anyone running a store the gap matters.
This is a straight breakdown of e-file.com pricing for the 2026 filing season. What each tier costs, what each tier actually includes, where the state fee bites, and the specific question most reviews dodge: does the cheap tier cover a Schedule C filer with a store, or does it force you into the top plan the moment you enter business income? I run Ecommerce Paradise and I have filed as a self-employed operator for years, so I am reading this the way you would.
I am going to be blunt about something up front. A meaningful share of the people reading this can file federal for free through the IRS and do not need to pay e-file.com or anyone else. I will cover that honestly instead of burying it, because pretending otherwise would waste your money. If you want the full platform assessment rather than just the numbers, I wrote a separate independent review of e-file.com covering features, support quality and the audit assistance.
Premium Plus Covers Schedule C for $49.99 Federal
Self-employment income, 1099-NEC and 1099-MISC, business expenses, home office and audit assistance. Coupon FED15OFF takes 15% off the federal fee.
What e-file.com Actually Costs
e-file.com sells three tiers. The names are Free Federal Basic Software, Deluxe Plus E-file, and Premium Plus E-file. Here are the published federal prices as they stand for this filing season.
Free Federal Basic Software. $0 federal. State filing is $32.99. Covers single or joint filers with straightforward W-2 situations, includes free federal e-filing and no fee to print a copy, and gives you online support only.
Deluxe Plus E-file. $29.99 federal. State filing is $32.99. Adds filing with dependents, mortgage interest deduction, retirement income, and phone support alongside online support. Positioned for income up to $100,000.
Premium Plus E-file. $49.99 federal. State filing is $32.99. Adds itemized deductions, all credit schedules, business and personal income, full telephone support, and IRS audit assistance.
The coupon code FED15OFF takes 15% off the federal fee on the two paid tiers. That brings Deluxe Plus to $25.49 federal and Premium Plus to $42.49 federal. The coupon does not touch the state fee. Promotional codes rotate every season, so treat that as a discount to verify at checkout rather than a permanent price.
One number that surprises people: the state fee does not scale with complexity. e-file.com’s own payment documentation states that state returns cost $32.99 regardless of the form required, and that standard federal returns run between $27.99 and $49.99 depending on complexity. So a simple W-2 state return and a state return with a full Schedule C attached cost you the same. That is unusual, and it works against you on the free tier and in your favor at the top tier.
The State Fee Is Where the Free Tier Stops Being Free
Here is the structural thing about e-file.com pricing that no headline number tells you. Every tier charges for state filing. There is no free state return at any price point, including the free one.
Run the math on the free tier. Federal costs $0. If you live in a state with an income tax, you pay $32.99 to file it. Your total is $32.99 for what was marketed as free filing.
Compare that to FreeTaxUSA, where the federal return is free for every tax situation. Its state return runs $15.99 per state, which is less than half what e-file.com charges for the same job.
Or compare to Cash App Taxes, which charges nothing for federal and nothing for state. Measured against either of those, the e-file.com price really only makes sense when your state fee is zero.
Now flip it. If you live in Wyoming, Nevada, Texas, Florida, South Dakota, Washington, Alaska, New Hampshire or Tennessee, you have no state income tax return to file. The $32.99 line item disappears entirely and e-file.com’s federal price is the whole price. That is the single biggest variable in whether e-file.com pricing is competitive for you, and it has nothing to do with the software.
This matters more for our audience than most. A lot of operators in the EP community deliberately form in Wyoming, and if that is also where you live and file, the state fee never applies. If you formed in Wyoming but live in California, you are filing a California return and paying the $32.99. Formation state and filing state are not the same thing, and confusing them is a common and expensive mistake. I go through that distinction properly in the guide on business formation for high-ticket dropshipping.
If you operate in multiple states, multiply. Three state returns is $98.97 on top of your federal fee, and at that point e-file.com stops being the budget option by a wide margin.
Does the Cheap Tier Cover a Store Owner? No.
This is the question that actually matters if you sell anything, so let me answer it directly. The free tier does not cover you. The Deluxe tier does not cover you either. If you have business income, you are on Premium Plus at $49.99 federal. There is no path around it.
The reason is Schedule C. Any profit from a store, a freelance contract, affiliate commissions or consulting income is self-employment income, and it gets reported on Schedule C with self-employment tax calculated on Schedule SE. e-file.com gates self-employment income behind the top tier. The College Investor’s teardown of the platform confirms this in its feature comparison, noting that self-employment income is available only in the Premium tier and that the Deluxe plan only supports W-2 income, unemployment income, and a few deductions.
Business.org reaches the same conclusion from a different angle, describing the Premium plan as the option that includes support for business income and calling e-file.com a tool for people with an uncomplicated tax situation rather than a first choice for small business owners.
So the honest framing of e-file.com pricing for a store owner is this: your price is $49.99 federal, plus $32.99 for each state return you owe. Call it $82.98 in a state with income tax, or $49.99 flat if you are in a no-tax state. Apply FED15OFF and those become $75.48 and $42.49.
What you get at that tier is genuine. Schedule C business expense deductions, home office, mileage, self-employment tax calculation, 1099-NEC and 1099-MISC handling, all credit schedules, investment and rental income, and audit assistance. For a store owner with clean books and a straightforward profit and loss, that is the whole job.
What it does not do well is complexity. Depreciation wizards for business assets are documented across multiple independent reviews as confusing and as failing to show the amount being claimed. If you bought equipment, a vehicle, or you hold rental property with real depreciation schedules, that weakness is going to cost you either accuracy or hours. Crypto is worse: every trade is manual entry with no exchange import.
No State Income Tax? Your Price Is Just $49.99
Wyoming, Texas, Florida, Nevada, Washington, Alaska, South Dakota, New Hampshire and Tennessee filers skip the $32.99 state fee entirely. Federal only, Schedule C included.
Check IRS Free File Before You Pay Anyone
I am not going to sell you software you do not need. The IRS runs a program called Free File in partnership with commercial tax software companies, and it offers genuinely free guided federal filing to taxpayers under an income ceiling. For the current season that ceiling is $89,000 in adjusted gross income or less.
That is not a stripped free tier with upsell walls. It is real guided software from participating providers, free because of the IRS agreement. Adjusted gross income is what is left after certain adjustments, and for a solo operator running a store, your business profit is what flows into it, not your gross revenue. A store doing $300,000 in sales with $70,000 in profit and no other household income is plausibly under that ceiling. Check before you assume you are out.
Above the ceiling, the IRS also offers Free File Fillable Forms with no income limit at all. The tradeoff is severe: limited calculations, no guidance, and no state filing. If you already know exactly which schedules you need and you are comfortable reading form instructions, it costs nothing. If you want to be walked through Schedule C line by line, it is the wrong tool and paid software earns its money.
My honest read: if Free File covers you, use it and keep the $50. If it does not cover you, or if you want the guided experience and the audit assistance, e-file.com Premium Plus is a defensible place to spend $49.99.
The 1099-K Threshold and What Actually Shows Up
Store owners get confused about 1099-K forms every year, and the confusion drives bad software decisions. Here is the current rule. Payment apps and online marketplaces are required to report payments on Form 1099-K when your total payments for goods or services through that platform exceed $20,000 in more than 200 transactions.
Two things follow from that. First, the threshold is high enough that plenty of legitimate store owners will not receive a 1099-K at all. Second, and this is the part people get wrong, not receiving a 1099-K does not mean the income is not taxable. You report your business income whether or not a form shows up. The form is a reporting mechanism for the IRS, not a switch that turns your tax obligation on.
Practically, this means your books are the source of truth, not the forms in your mailbox. If you are reconciling your store payouts against a real bookkeeping system rather than waiting for paperwork, tax software becomes a data entry exercise instead of a reconstruction project. Whether you use QuickBooks or something lighter, having the numbers before you open any tax software is what makes the cheap tier viable.
Quarterly Estimated Tax Is Not Included in Any Tier
This catches new store owners every single year and no tier of e-file.com pricing changes it. Tax software files your annual return. It does not make your quarterly payments.
The IRS expects estimated tax payments if you will owe $1,000 or more when your return is filed. You avoid the underpayment penalty by paying at least 90% of the current year tax or 100% of the tax shown on the prior year return, whichever is smaller. Higher income filers face a stiffer prior year percentage.
If your store turns profitable mid-year and you have not been setting money aside, you can file a perfectly accurate return in April and still owe a penalty for not having paid along the way. No software tier prevents that. Set aside a percentage of profit as it comes in and pay quarterly. That is an operating discipline, not a software feature.
The Costs That Are Not on the Pricing Page
Two line items can quietly raise your total. The first is Refund Transfer, which lets you pay the software fee out of your refund instead of upfront with a card. e-file.com charges a $39.99 additional service fee for that convenience. On a $49.99 federal return, choosing that option nearly doubles your cost. Pay with a card.
The second is paying the IRS itself by card. Card processor fees for tax payments typically start around $2.79 and can run as high as 2.35% of the payment. On a $6,000 self-employment tax bill that is meaningful. Use direct bank withdrawal instead.
Beyond fees, there are two structural gaps worth pricing in. e-file.com offers no accuracy guarantee and no maximum refund guarantee, which TurboTax and H&R Block both provide. And customer support is technical support for using the software, not tax advice. If your question is whether a specific expense is deductible, nobody at that price point is answering it.
How e-file.com Pricing Compares
Published prices move during the season and vary by source, so treat the figures below as the current published range rather than a locked quote. Verify at checkout before you commit.
| Platform | Free Federal | Self-Employed Federal | State Filing | Schedule C on Free Tier |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| e-file.com | Yes, very limited | $49.99 (Premium Plus) | $32.99 per state | No |
| FreeTaxUSA | Yes, all situations | $0 | $15.99 per state | Yes |
| Cash App Taxes | Yes, broad | $0 | $0 | Yes |
| TaxSlayer | Yes, limited | $74.99 | $0 to $47.99 | No |
| TaxAct | Yes, income capped | $69.99 to $99.99 | State additional | No |
| H&R Block | Yes, limited | $85 to $125 | $37 to $49 per state | No |
| TurboTax | Yes, limited | $99 to $139 | $39 to $64 per state | No |
The table makes the uncomfortable conclusion obvious. On price alone, e-file.com is not the cheapest way for a self-employed filer to get a return done. FreeTaxUSA charges nothing for the federal return including full self-employment support and undercuts e-file.com on state filing by seventeen dollars. Cash App Taxes charges nothing at all. TaxSlayer’s own comparison page lists its Self-Employed tier at $74.99 federal, which is higher than e-file.com but comes with a more mature self-employment workflow.
Where e-file.com wins is against the expensive end. Against TurboTax and H&R Block self-employed tiers, e-file.com saves you somewhere between $35 and $90 on the federal return. If your instinct was to default to TurboTax because it is the name you know, e-file.com is a real saving for a simple Schedule C. If you were already going to use FreeTaxUSA, e-file.com does not have a price argument.
Who Should Actually Pay for e-file.com
Pay for it if you are a self-employed filer in a no-income-tax state with a straightforward Schedule C, you want a guided interface rather than fillable forms, and you value having audit assistance included. At $49.99 all in, Premium Plus is a clean deal at that price.
Pay for it if you are moving off TurboTax purely on cost and you want the smallest possible change in experience. The guided flow is clean and independent reviews consistently praise the plain-language walkthrough for first-time filers.
Do not pay for it if you qualify for IRS Free File. Do not pay for it if you are comfortable with FreeTaxUSA, because you will pay more for less. Do not pay for it if you have heavy depreciation, active crypto trading, multiple state returns, or an LLC taxed as an S-corp, because e-file.com does not file business returns at all and the tooling for those situations is weak or absent.
And if the real problem is that your books are a mess rather than that your software is expensive, no tier fixes that. A dedicated bookkeeping tool like Keeper or a proper ecommerce ledger will save you more money in found deductions than the entire difference between any two of these platforms.
Worth saying plainly: tax software is downstream of business structure. If you have not settled which niche you are in, whether you are a sole proprietor or an LLC, and how your supplier payments flow, filing season will be painful at any price.
Start with what high-ticket dropshipping actually is. Then work through the high-ticket niches list and pick a category you can actually defend on margin.
After that, get your sourcing straight using the guide on how to find suppliers for high-ticket products. Clean structure is what makes cheap software sufficient, and it is the difference between a $49.99 return and a four figure accountant bill.
If you would rather skip the trial and error entirely and have the whole store built, sourced and launched for you, that is what our done-for-you high-ticket dropshipping build and launch service exists to do.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much does e-file.com cost in total for a self-employed filer?
$49.99 for the Premium Plus federal return, plus $32.99 for each state return you file. In a state with income tax that is $82.98. In a no-income-tax state it is $49.99. Applying coupon FED15OFF to the federal fee brings those to $75.48 and $42.49 respectively.
Is e-file.com really free?
The federal return on the Free Federal Basic tier genuinely costs $0, but state filing is $32.99 at every tier including the free one. There is no free state return. The free tier is also restricted to simple W-2 situations, so most filers with dependents, a mortgage, retirement income or any business income get moved to a paid plan before they can file.
Which e-file.com tier do I need for a Shopify store or 1099 income?
Premium Plus at $49.99 federal. Self-employment income, Schedule C, business expenses, 1099-NEC and 1099-MISC are all gated behind the top tier. The free and Deluxe tiers will not let you file a return with business income on it.
Is e-file.com cheaper than TurboTax?
For a self-employed return, yes, by a wide margin. TurboTax self-employed pricing runs roughly $99 to $139 federal plus state, against $49.99 federal for e-file.com Premium Plus. TurboTax includes accuracy and maximum refund guarantees and far better investment and crypto import, so the comparison is not price alone, but the price gap is real.
Is e-file.com cheaper than FreeTaxUSA?
No. FreeTaxUSA charges $0 for the federal return including full self-employment and Schedule C support, and $15.99 per state. e-file.com charges $49.99 federal and $32.99 per state for the equivalent coverage. If price is your only criterion, FreeTaxUSA wins clearly.
Does e-file.com handle quarterly estimated taxes or business returns?
No to both in the way people usually mean. It files your annual individual return and does not make quarterly estimated payments for you. It also does not file business entity returns for S-corps, C-corps or partnerships. If your LLC elected S-corp taxation, you need different software or an accountant.
Bottom Line
e-file.com pricing is honest at the top and misleading at the bottom. Premium Plus at $49.99 federal is a legitimately good price for guided Schedule C filing with audit assistance included, and against TurboTax or H&R Block it will save a store owner real money. The free tier is where the marketing outruns reality, because state filing costs $32.99 no matter which tier you are on and business income forces you to the top plan regardless.
The decision comes down to two questions. Do you qualify for IRS Free File at $89,000 adjusted gross income or less? If yes, file there and keep the money. If no, are you willing to use FreeTaxUSA, which does the same job for $0 federal and $15.99 per state? If yes, use it. If you want a cleaner guided experience than FreeTaxUSA, you are in a no-income-tax state, and you want audit assistance bundled in, e-file.com Premium Plus at $49.99 is a reasonable place to land and considerably cheaper than the brands you have seen advertised.
Whatever you pick, get your books reconciled before you open any of it. The software is the last ten percent of the job.
Ready to File? Check the Current Tier Prices
Premium Plus covers Schedule C, home office, mileage and self-employment tax at $49.99 federal. Start the return free and only pay when you file. Coupon FED15OFF applies to the federal fee.
Related Articles
How to Pay 1099 Contractors as an Ecommerce Business Owner
Nomad Filing Review 2026: DIY Form 5472 Filing for Non-Resident US LLC Owners
Best Formation Service for Non-US Residents Starting a US Business in 2026
Inc Authority Pricing 2026: What Is Really Free and Where the Upsells Start
What Is an Articles of Organization Document?
Trevor Fenner is an ecommerce entrepreneur and the founder of Ecommerce Paradise, a platform focused on helping entrepreneurs build and scale profitable high-ticket ecommerce and dropshipping businesses. With over a decade of hands-on experience, Trevor specializes in high-ticket dropshipping strategy, niche and product selection, supplier recruiting and onboarding, Google & Bing Shopping ads, ecommerce SEO, and systems-driven automation and scaling. Through Ecommerce Paradise, he provides free education via in-depth guides like How to Start High-Ticket Dropshipping, advanced training through the High-Ticket Dropshipping Masterclass, and fully done-for-you turnkey ecommerce services for entrepreneurs who want a faster, more hands-off path to growth. Trevor is known for emphasizing sustainable, real-world ecommerce models over hype-driven tactics, helping store owners build scalable, sellable, and location-independent brands.
Still deciding what to sell?
Grab the free list of 1,000+ niches that work for high-ticket dropshipping, sorted by category.
Free. Unsubscribe any time.
