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10 best tax apps, expense apps, and tax prep apps for Android
Tax season is a tough time of year for many folks. Some only need to drop some health insurance info and their W-2’s into a computer and dance away with a tax return. However, others have difficult things like Schedule C, self-employment tax, retirement interest, student loan interest, and plenty of other weird and difficult tax stuff. There are a lot of ways to file online and most people use popular tax services like TurboTax and H&R Block.
However, there are some other tools, methods of tax prep, and expense tracker stuff that is infinitely useful for those who prepare their own taxes. Here are the best tax apps for Android. We also recommend checking out our list of the best expense tracker apps for Android as well for even more suggestions.
The best tax apps, tax prep apps, and expense apps for Android
Adobe Scan
Price: Free
Adobe Scan is a good, basic document scanner. You use the camera to scan your documents, receipts, or other paper things. It turns them into PDF files. You can also improve the image quality after scanning with a small number of editing tools. You can save these documents to Google Drive, your phone, or to your computer. This is a great way to digitize your tax documents for easier storage and organization. The app is entirely free with no in-app purchases or ads. There are some additional document scanner apps for Android that are pretty decent. We have a list of those linked just below the first paragraph in this article.
See also: The best document scanner apps
CamScanner
Price: Free / $4.99 per month / $49.99 per year
CamScanner is a more powerful document scanner for business use. This powerful app can do a variety of things. You can scan documents as you would expect from an app like this. The app also lets you collaborate with other users, send your document anywhere, and save your document in a couple of different file types. You can also send your documents via fax for a nominal fee and print them if necessary, The OCR capabilities can even extract text from forms and documents after the scan. There is a subscription service that adds a bunch of the features along with a business class subscription with even heavier features.
Credit Karma
Price: Free
Credit Karma is an above-average app for credit tracking. The scores aren’t 100% accurate but it can give you a good idea. However, not many people know about Credit Karma’s tax prep software. It’s not great for those with complicated taxes. However, if all you need is to drop a W-2 into some software and file, this app works fine. It’a also entirely free so you can dodge the fees that come with larger tax prep organizations. Again, we only recommend this for people who have very simple taxes. Otherwise, something more powerful may be a better, more ergonomic option.
Expensify
Price: Free / $4.99-$9.00 per month
Expensify is a popular expense tracking service. It lets you enter things like receipts, tracks your mileage while driving, and other such expenses for tax reasons. It uses GPS to track your driving miles and there are many tools for sending receipts, expensing purchases, and other such activities. There are a variety of subscription services depending on your use case. We would’ve preferred an all-in-one subscription price, but it is what it is. The app does have the occasional bug and some design flaws, but nothing too serious.
Financial Calculators
Price: Free / $4.99
Financial Calculators is, well, a calculator with a whole bunch of uses. There are dozens of calculators for all kinds of things. That includes loan calculators, mortgage calculators, and some really niche stuff like a US inflation calculator. There are tons of tax scenarios where something like this may be useful. Admittedly, we only recommend this for people with special tax situations or need to know the loan interest, even though most organizations give you tax forms every year anyway. The free version contains ads and the premium version does not. They otherwise operate about the same.
IRS2Go
Price: Free
IRS2Go is, well, the official app of the IRS. It’s actually useful for stuff, believe it or not. You can check your tax refund status, make payments, and find tax prep assistance if you need it. Additionally, the app has a large supply of tax tips and tricks along with the actual rules and regulations. There are a lot of them. It can even generate a security login code for you. It’s a little weird that an app developed by a government can be somewhat useful, but this one is. It’s not without its issues and it’s definitely bland to look at, but those who spend a lot of time doing taxes may find it useful and those who file their W-2 can check on the refund status quickly.
Mint
Price: Free
Mint is an all-in-one budget and expenses app. You can log in with your bank accounts and various other accounts. The app keeps track of your various expenses with useful graphs to show your budget and expenses. You can then balance your budget and do all of that usual stuff. It also helps you keep track of things like receipts for tax purposes as well. It’s a decent all-in-one solution for budgeting, expense tracking, and credit monitoring.
See also: The best money making apps for Android
MyBlock
Price: Free / Varies
H&R Block is one of those big companies that do tax preparation. You can’t prepare your taxes in the app. However, you can do basically anything else. That includes tax estimates, scheduling appointments at physical locations, finding locations, and managing your Emerald MasterCard that they give out to people with tax refunds. You can also upload various tax documents in preparation for your in-person appointments. The website lets you file your taxes if you choose to use it and the software works well enough for most folks, even if it is a little bit complicated.
NerdWallet
Price: Free
NerdWallet is another all-in-one solution for budgeting, expense tracking, and credit monitoring. You can log in to your various accounts, see your budget in graph format, and keep track of all of your receipts. The app features encryption for some measure of security and plenty of extra tools to help out. It has a cash-back offer, but we didn’t test that out. It’s about as good as Mint but with a simpler UI and fewer features. It’s a good app for those looking to budget their money and track their expenses.
See also: The best cryptocurrency apps for Android
TurboTax
Price: Free / Varies
TurboTax is one of the top two biggest tax prep companies next to H&R Block. The app actually lets you do your taxes and it’s not a bad way to go if you don’t need anything too complicated. You can scan in W-2 forms and the app will check for accuracy before you file. We also quite enjoy TurboTax’s explanation feature. It gives you some insights into tax law, deductions, entitlements, and other tax stuff. Android Authority readers can file their federal and state taxes for free with the offer linked at the button. It works for simple taxes, so it’s a no go for those with Schedule C forms or 1099’s. However, if all you have is a W-2 and that’s it, the free TurboTax offer is probably your best bet. If you don’t want the deal, that’s fine. You can easily find TurboTax’s app in the Play Store with a simple search.
Just in case
Occasionally tax season doesn’t go quite as you expected. You may end up owing the IRS a bunch of money. These can be very stressful times and it can be the cause of some bad decision making. Sometimes people just need a loan to cover the bill. Payday loans are the obvious choice, but the interest rates on those are absurd and can be well over 100% APR (not joking). We’re sure you may have a bank or two in mind for a personal loan to cover your taxes. However, if you don’t or you want to shop around, we have some decent deals to check out.
Prosper connects good-credit borrowers with investors — willing to fund you if you meet their criteria. You can borrow $2,000 to $40,000 over three or five years, and only pay an APR of between 6.95% and 35.99%. This depends on the proprietary risk-rating system of Prosper, which takes into account hundreds of data points. Of course, we highly recommend reading the fine print before signing anything, but Prosper isn’t a bad place to start.
If we missed any tax apps, tax prep apps, or expense apps that you like, tell us about them in the comments! You can also click here to check out our latest Android app and game lists!
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