SelfTax vs TelosTax

SelfTax has no write-up on Specifiction yet; its figures are above.

TelosTax is a browser-based tax preparation app for the 2025 tax year, built on an open-source tax engine. It lists AI tax guidance, document import, deduction finding, and federal and state filing. The project reports more than 90 tax features intended to cover about 85–90% of individual filers. Its federal scope includes Form 1040 with Schedules A–H, SE, and D, plus more than 30 supplemental forms; state calculations cover all 50 states and Washington, DC. It lists 41 IRS and 43 state PDF templates with automatic field mapping. Private Mode is described as fully offline. Optional BYOK Mode uses the user's Anthropic API key for AI chat, expense scanning, and document extraction, with personally identifiable information removed before transmission. TelosTax says tax data is encrypted at rest with AES-256-GCM, and that its calculation layer has no database access or network calls. The free, open-source project is installable on desktop and mobile and supports Android, iOS, Linux, macOS, web, and Windows. Although a free plan is listed, the maker does not publish plan prices.