Keeper

Keeper is a tax-filing platform designed for 1099 contractors, self-employed workers, small business owners, and people with complex tax situations. The site is positioned as a self-service tax platform with optional add-on support from certified tax professionals, not as a replacement for a full-service accounting firm. The company markets itself as an "IRS authorized e-File Provider," which means it is registered with the IRS to electronically file tax returns on your behalf.

The core workflow Keeper handles is federal and state tax filing for self-employed workers and businesses. You can file a basic return as a solo 1099 contractor, handle an S-Corp election, file partnership taxes, or manage a mix of W-2 employment and 1099 income. The app also covers rental property income, foreign income for expats, investment income, and K-1 pass-through income from partnerships and S-Corps. This breadth of coverage is useful because many self-employed workers have more complex tax lives than a simple 1099 return: you might have rental properties, investment accounts, and family dependents all at the same time.

Keeper's main value proposition is the combination of AI-assisted deduction discovery and year-round support from tax professionals. The app scans your bank transactions to identify potentially deductible business expenses, then surfaces those deductions as suggestions you can approve or reject before your return is filed. This automation addresses a common pain point for self-employed workers: you know you have deductions, but you also know you're missing some, and manually categorizing a year's worth of transactions is tedious. The AI layer speeds that up. When you finish building your return, it goes to a tax professional who reviews it for accuracy and signs off before filing. This hybrid model means you do the data entry and review, but a human expert checks your work before it reaches the IRS.

The pricing structure is straightforward and flat. The Standard plan costs 199 dollars per year and covers W-2 employment, 1099 contracting, sole proprietorships, and basic individual tax complexities. The Premium plan costs 399 dollars per year and adds the ability to handle more complex situations like LLCs, K-1 pass-through income, rental properties, foreign income, and AMT (alternative minimum tax). The Business plan costs 1199 dollars per year and is built for S-Corps or partnership tax returns. All plans include federal and state e-filing, the ability to link up to 10 financial accounts, receipt upload, a refund guarantee, and audit protection. These prices are the published price at the time of writing; check the pricing page before subscribing since these rates change. The free trial period is 14 days, during which you can start tracking deductions, get unlimited tax help, and begin filing your taxes. If you want to submit your taxes to the IRS and state authorities, you'll need to pay for a subscription.

The difference between the plans is mainly the complexity of tax situations covered. The Standard plan is designed for straightforward situations: a W-2 job plus some 1099 income, or freelance-only income with no dependencies or side businesses. The Premium plan is for people whose taxes are more complicated: you own an LLC that generates business income, you have rental property income, you're a US expat with foreign income, you have investment income from stocks and crypto, or you have a child dependent. The Business plan is for S-Corp and partnership returns, which have more filing requirements than solo returns.

A key feature across all plans is the AI tax-analysis tool. You can upload last year's tax return, and Keeper's AI analyzes it to find missed tax-saving opportunities. It looks for deductions you left out, tax credits you might be eligible for, and other strategies that could lower your tax bill. The app also includes a suite of calculators: a tax refund calculator, a tax rate calculator to help you set aside money for taxes, and a quarterly tax calculator to estimate what you owe as a self-employed worker. These tools are available in all three tiers.

One limitation is what Keeper does not currently offer. The site explicitly marks "Income tracking" and "Mileage tracking" as "Coming soon," which means you cannot yet use Keeper to automatically track your gig income or log your mileage for deduction purposes. If you drive for rideshare or delivery, you'll need to track those miles yourself in the meantime and enter them as a manual expense when you file, since Keeper doesn't yet automate that piece of the picture. Business formation is available, but it is listed as an add-on service that goes beyond the core tax-filing product, as is bookkeeping help beyond basic expense tracking. The app does not handle everything a full accounting firm would, which is why it positions premium support as an optional upgrade.

The optional tax professional add-on is built into the Premium and Business plans but can be added to Standard. For Premium customers, you get a dedicated certified tax professional who is available year-round to answer questions and help with quarterly tax planning. This is not a one-time review; it's ongoing support. The site lists examples of who handles your return: CPAs with 10 to 25 years of experience, IRS Enrolled Agents with 14 to 30 years of experience. You can also book a call to analyze your tax situation, implement tax strategies, or review a prior year's return. If you need to amend a return or file a late return up to 5 years back, those services are covered.

The security and accuracy model is built around certification and guarantees. Every return is reviewed and signed by a tax professional before it files, which is a human checkpoint before the IRS sees it. Keeper claims "100% Accuracy guaranteed," though the guarantee itself requires you to use the app correctly and provide accurate information. The company offers audit protection for an unspecified scope, which typically means legal representation if the IRS questions deductions on your return, though the specifics are worth confirming on the site.

Bank account linking is how Keeper populates your deductions. When you link your business checking account or credit card, Keeper scans those transactions and uses machine learning to categorize them as business expenses. You can reject suggestions if they're wrong, and you can manually add expenses too. The app uses what it calls "patented technology" to categorize transactions, though the specific innovation is not detailed on the page. Linking up to 10 accounts means you can connect a business checking account, a credit card, a savings account, a separate card you use for advertising, and so on. If a connection breaks, you can re-link it or add transactions manually.

Keeper is best suited to self-employed workers and business owners who want a structured tax-filing process with expert review but don't need a full-service accountant. The app makes sense if you have a complex tax situation (multiple income streams, investments, rental property) and want AI-assisted deduction discovery rather than remembering or tracking everything yourself. You'll get faster turnaround than a traditional tax preparer and lower cost than hiring a CPA for the entire year. The downside is that you have to do the front-end data entry yourself: linking accounts, reviewing categorizations, answering interview questions. If you want someone to take over your entire tax life, this is a step below a full-service CPA. If you want to avoid expensive tax prep and feel confident organizing your own information, Keeper bridges the gap between DIY tax software and outsourcing everything.