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Why Do I Need to Add In Prior Years?

mjohnson82

I spent about 2 hours and completed my 2025 taxes. When I got to the checkout process, it told me I needed to pay $23.98 (I added State and audit protection) before I could continue getting my return.

After paying, it said in order to get my tax refund, I needed to fill out 2021-2023 returns.

Upon clicking the button to upload my actual prior year PDFs, it's requiring me to manually input LITERALLY everything for each year (W2, 1099, Misc Income, Donations, Expenses, etc) before I can move to the next section.

This CANNOT be their "easy, 1-click upload" feature, right? I'm not required to do my taxes for the last 3 years all over again for this site, right?

And now that I'm half-way through filling out 2023, there's no way for me to get back to 2025. It's saying I owe $17,119 in federal taxes when in 2025 it said I'd be getting money back.

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Accepted answers

mjohnson82

https://community.freetaxusa.com/discussion/comment/6288#Comment_6288

It looks like I simply needed to go back into one of my 1099-MISC forms and click "continue" in order to make it pass all checks. I'm good now. Thanks for sparking my brain to find the solution!

All comments

JLFTUFreeForum

Not sure but it almost sounds like you uploaded or added to your 2025 tax year return.

If they did ask to add to previous years there is the option on the their home page.

On that page you would have to click on "Prior Years" and pick a year.

https://www.freetaxusa.com/

Screenshot 2026-01-15 at 14-30-05 FreeTaxUSA® - Free Online Tax Filing for Federal Returns.png

Hopefully one of the FTU people will chime in.

mjohnson82

https://community.freetaxusa.com/discussion/comment/6288#Comment_6288

Here's some clarifying info… when I was on the checkout process, about to submit to get my federal return, the site said that I had issues with my 1099-NEC (side income). I clicked that button and it took me back to the 2025 1099-NEC income section. On that page, it said I needed to complete my prior year returns in order to submit correctly.

But how would it know there was an error with prior returns when I never uploaded that info to begin with? I have done all prior year taxes with either TurboTax or TaxAct. I'd use them this year but the site forced me to pay before it showed me the errors.

mjohnson82

https://community.freetaxusa.com/discussion/comment/6288#Comment_6288

It looks like I simply needed to go back into one of my 1099-MISC forms and click "continue" in order to make it pass all checks. I'm good now. Thanks for sparking my brain to find the solution!