CentSense vs Cash App Taxes (2026): Year-Round Expense Tracking vs 100% Free Filing

Published: June 12, 2026 · Reading time: 6 min

TL;DR: Cash App Taxes (formerly Credit Karma Tax) is the only major filer with truly free federal and state returns — Schedule C and Schedule SE included, no paid tiers at all. The catches: you need a Cash App account, it files one state only, some forms aren't supported, and support is self-serve. And it's filing software only — no receipt scanning, no mileage log, no categorization. CentSense Solo ($5/month) is the year-round half: AI receipt scanning tagged to the exact Schedule C line, $0.725/mile logging, and a CPA-ready CSV with the totals the interview asks for. Together: $60/year all-in, both halves covered.

If you searched "CentSense vs Cash App Taxes," you've probably spotted the most aggressive price in tax software — free, full stop — and you're wondering what the catch is for a freelancer. The catch isn't hidden fees. It's that free filing still assumes someone did the bookkeeping.

What Cash App Taxes Does Well

The pitch survives scrutiny:

• Free federal filing — including Schedule C and Schedule SE, which most competitors paywall behind a "self-employed" tier
• Free state filing — the genuinely rare part; even budget filers usually charge ~$15 per state
• No upsell ladder — there is no paid edition to be steered into
• Competent interview coverage of 1099-NEC/1099-K income, business expenses by category, home office, and vehicle questions, with e-file and direct deposit

For a single-state, self-preparing freelancer, that's the lowest possible filing cost — beating even the budget options we've compared in CentSense vs FreeTaxUSA and the premium ones in CentSense vs TurboTax and CentSense vs H&R Block.

The Trade-Offs

Free comes with a shape:

• Cash App account required — the software lives inside Block's app ecosystem
• One state return — moved mid-year or work across state lines? Not supported
• Unsupported situations — foreign earned income and some less-common forms are out of scope
• Self-serve support — no tax-pro review or "expert help" tier exists to buy, even if you want it

None of these are dealbreakers for the core audience: a freelancer living and working in one state with a straightforward Schedule C.

What Cash App Taxes Doesn't Do

It's filing software, full stop. The Schedule C interview asks:

• Gross receipts?
• Supplies?
• Car and truck expenses — and how many business miles?

It assumes those totals already exist. There's:

• No receipt capture — the March supply run lives or dies in your own records
• No mileage log — the vehicle questions expect a number from a compliant contemporaneous log
• No categorization engine — sorting a year of spending into Schedule C categories is on you
• No year-round existence — and a Cash App payment feed is not an expense record; the IRS wants receipts, not transaction lines (Venmo/PayPal history has the same gap)

What CentSense Is

CentSense is the year-round record-keeping half:

1. Scan — AI reads each receipt and extracts vendor, date, and amount.
2. Categorize — every expense tagged to the right Schedule C line, business and personal kept separate.
3. Track mileage — business miles at the 2026 IRS rate of $0.725/mile.
4. Export — a CPA-ready CSV whose totals map directly onto the interview questions.

CentSense doesn't e-file — in April, the export is the answer sheet, whether the filer is Cash App Taxes, FreeTaxUSA, TaxAct, or a CPA per the how-to-file walkthrough.

Side-by-Side

The Right Way to Think About It

It's a stack, not a contest:

• All year: CentSense captures receipts the day they exist and logs miles automatically — no shoebox archaeology, no reconstructed mileage log in January.
• April: open Cash App Taxes, walk the Schedule C interview with the CentSense export open, type in the totals, file federal and state for $0.

Total: $60/year all-in — and documentation behind every number if the IRS asks, which free filing alone never provides. Pair it with the freelancer tax checklist and the quarterly estimates guide and the whole tax year runs on rails.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is Cash App Taxes and is it really free?

Cash App Taxes (formerly Credit Karma Tax, acquired by Block in 2020) is tax-preparation software with genuinely free federal and state filing — no paid tiers, no upsells to a "self-employed" edition. Schedule C and Schedule SE are included. The trade-offs: you must download Cash App and create an account to use it, it files only one state return (no multi-state), some less-common situations like foreign earned income aren't supported, and support is self-serve rather than tax-pro review. For a single-state freelancer with organized records, the price is unbeatable — literally zero.

Is CentSense a replacement for Cash App Taxes?

No — they cover different halves of the same job. CentSense is the year-round system: AI receipt scanning, expense categorization to the exact Schedule C line, business mileage logged at the 2026 IRS rate of $0.725/mile, and a CPA-ready CSV export. Cash App Taxes is the April system: it turns finished totals into a filed federal and state return for free. CentSense doesn't e-file; Cash App Taxes doesn't track. Used together, a freelancer's total tax-software spend is $5/month for CentSense Solo and zero for filing.

Can Cash App Taxes track my business expenses during the year?

No. Cash App Taxes is filing software — its Schedule C interview asks for totals: gross receipts, supplies, car and truck expenses, business miles. It has no receipt capture, no mileage tracker, no bank feed categorizing expenses into Schedule C lines, and it isn't open as a record-keeping tool during the year. The Cash App itself shows payment history if clients pay you through it, but a payment feed is not an expense record — the IRS wants receipts and a contemporaneous mileage log behind the numbers you type in.

Who should not use Cash App Taxes?

Freelancers who need a multi-state return (it files exactly one state), have foreign earned income or other unsupported forms, want a tax professional to review or sign the return, or aren't comfortable self-preparing from an interview flow. In those cases a paid filer or a CPA makes sense — and the CentSense export works identically there, since whoever files needs the same Schedule C totals. If you do fit the supported profile, the free filing is real and complete, including e-file and direct deposit.

How much do CentSense and Cash App Taxes cost together?

CentSense has a free tier with 10 AI receipt scans per month; the Solo plan is $5/month for unlimited scanning and mileage logging. Cash App Taxes is free for both federal and state filing with Schedule C included. A freelancer running both pays $60 a year all-in — less than a single month of some bookkeeping suites, with year-round records and a filed return covered. The only cost that isn't money is the Cash App account requirement and self-serve support at filing time.

Authoritative References

• IRS — About Schedule C (Form 1040)
• IRS — Recordkeeping for Small Businesses
• IRS — Self-Employed Individuals Tax Center

Related reading: CentSense vs FreeTaxUSA · CentSense vs TurboTax Self-Employed · How to file taxes as a freelancer

Free Filing Deserves Real Numbers

Cash App Taxes will file your Schedule C for nothing — if you show up with the totals. CentSense builds them all year: AI receipt scanning tagged to the right Schedule C line, mileage at the $0.725 IRS rate, and one CPA-ready CSV in April. Free tier includes 10 AI scans per month; Solo is $5/month for unlimited scanning and mileage logging.

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This guide is general education for U.S. freelancers and Schedule C filers in 2026. It is not personalized tax advice — bring your specific situation to a CPA or EA. Product names and pricing belong to their respective owners and may change.