TaxAct
TaxAct Holdings, Inc. is an American tax preparation software company based in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. The company offers its own software package "TaxAct" to individual tax registers, companies and professional affiliates. The company was founded in 1998. Since 2012, TaxAct Holdings, Inc. is a subsidiary of Blucora. History. TaxAct Holdings, Inc. was founded in 1998 as "2nd Story Software" by Lance Dunn, the former Vice President of software development at Parsons Technology. Later, Lance Dunn recruited Jerry McConnell and Alan Sperfslage as developers, and Cammie Greif as a marketer. In 2000, a cloud-based version of TaxACT software was  released. In 2004, TA Associates, a private equity firm based in Boston, acquired two-thirds of the company for $89 million. In October 2010, H&R Block said it would pay $287.5 million in cash to acquire the parent firm of TaxAct. In May 2011 the U.S. Department of Justice attempted to stop the acquisition in an antitrust lawsuit. In November 2011, a federal judge sided with the Justice Department, and both companies mutually terminated the contract. In January 2012, 2nd Story Software was sold to Seattle-based Blucora (formerly Infospace, Inc.) for more than $287 million. In  2013, the name was officially changed to TaxAct Holdings, Inc. Subsequently, in October of the same year, TaxAct acquired Balance Financial, the company that specializes in personal finance tools and services. In 2018, former Intuit executive Curtis Campbell was appointed as the President of the company. TaxAct is a member of the Free File Alliance, a free federal tax preparation and electronic filing program for eligible individual taxpayers developed through a partnership between the IRS and a group of private sector tax software companies. Product overview. TaxAct offers two product formats: TaxACT Online which is web-based tax preparation, and  TaxACT Desktop. There is also a free mobile app called TaxACT Express which was released on January 17, 2014. The app is available for iOS and Android. There are several online plans: Free, Basic+, Deluxe+, Premier+ and Self- Employed+ and Pro. TaxAct offers a Free version for basic returns. On January, 2017 TaxAct partnered with Miami-based startup Taxfyle. The partnership enables individual tax filers, small and medium sized business owners, independent contractors to connect with Certified Public Accountants and Enrolled Agents should they prefer to have their taxes completed by a licensed accounting professional. In March 2018 TaxAct Online  Freelancer Edition was awarded the title of "The best tax software for independent contractors" by Business Insider.