# Gideon Tax

> Honest IRS e-file for businesses, self-employed people and tax professionals, run by Gideon Solutions, LLC. Prices are stated before you start, every return is checked before you pay, and a person reviews what the software cannot judge. No upsells. That person is Ian Joiner, Enrolled Agent — enrolled to practice before the Internal Revenue Service — who also offers representation and the other Enrolled Agent services below.

Site: https://www.gideontax.com
Test site (IRS ATS, never the real IRS): https://development.gideontax.com
Sister site for truckers only (Form 2290 and the 8849 Schedule 6 credit, English and Spanish): https://gideontruckertax.com — same company, same prices, same transmitter; its own /llms.txt is at https://gideontruckertax.com/llms.txt.
Contact: ian@gideonsolutions.us · 980-441-7721 · 1324 Colgher St, Charlotte, NC 28227
Machine-readable: sitemap https://www.gideontax.com/sitemap.xml · robots https://www.gideontax.com/robots.txt (AI crawlers welcome on the public pages) · OpenAPI https://www.gideontax.com/api/v1/openapi.json
Last updated: 2026-10-09

## What this site files (e-file, live in production)

2290, 720, 8849, 941, 941X, 940, 943, 943X, 944, 945, 945X, 1040, 1040NR, 1040SS, 5330, 56, 9465. Also prepared and mailed on paper where the IRS has no e-file: Form 720-X, Forms 8822/8822-B. Tax-exempt returns (990 family, 4720, 5227) and information returns (IRIS) are prepared here and are on their way to e-file. Business income tax returns (the Form 1120 family and Form 1065) are prepared, checked and signed here, and held until the IRS opens its 2026 corporate and partnership packages for production and approves Gideon Tax to file them.

## What it costs (self-service; the IRS tax itself is separate and paid to the IRS)

- Form 2290 (heavy highway vehicle use tax): first filing $4.50 per truck, capped at $18 per fleet; a returning customer's renewal $1 per truck, capped at $10; an amendment $10; a VIN correction free; a final return free for a returning customer, $4.50 otherwise. Full service ("we will file for you"): $8 a vehicle, capped at $80 new / $40 returning.
- Form 720 (quarterly excise): $5 when the tax is $50 or less (including a nil return), $7 for a Part II-only return such as the PCORI fee, $9 for any return with a Part I line.
- Form 8849 (excise refund): $5 for a Schedule 6-only claim (the Form 2290 vehicle credit), $10 for any other schedule.
- Forms 940, 941, 943, 944, 945 and their corrections: $2 a return, less in volume.
- Form 1040: $5 for the federal return, original or amended (Form 1040-X rides the corrected return, same price). No state return is filed here.
- Form 1040-NR (nonresident alien) and Form 1040-SS (Puerto Rico and the territories, Spanish first): $5 each, on their own pages.
- Form 1120 and its family (1120-S, 1120-F, 1120-H, 1120-L, 1120-PC, 1120-REIT, 1120-RIC): $80 flat. Form 1065: $80 flat. A person reviews each one; it is held and transmitted once the IRS opens its 2026 corporate and partnership packages for production (its test system takes them from October 13, 2026) and approves Gideon Tax to file them; refunded if it cannot be filed.
- Tax professionals: a flat $180 a year plan for unlimited Form 2290 (and 8849 Schedule 6) e-filing under their own EFIN; other plans cover more forms. See https://www.gideontax.com/pros.

The number the checkout charges is always the number on the page you are on. If a figure here and a page disagree, the page is right and this file is stale — say so at ian@gideonsolutions.us.

## Enrolled Agent services (a person, not software)

Ian Joiner is an Enrolled Agent, enrolled to practice before the Internal Revenue Service (verify in the IRS directory: https://irs.treasury.gov/rpo/rpo.jsf). These are engaged by conversation at https://www.gideontax.com/enrolled-agent, not bought through the checkout. The first look is free; a "from" price is a floor, and the price is agreed in writing before anything is charged; hourly work comes with an estimate; no fee is contingent on an IRS outcome; representation needs a Form 2848 the taxpayer signs.

- Tax consultations: $60 for 30 minutes or $120 per hour. Your tax question, answered by an Enrolled Agent — by phone or video, with the rule behind the answer.
- Tax planning packages: from $250. A written plan for the year ahead, worked from your own figures: estimates, withholding, timing, entity and retirement choices.
- Explain an IRS letter: $40 for a straightforward notice. A plain-English explanation of one IRS notice, with recommended next steps, delivered privately in your account. Free route: The IRS explains its own notices, free, at irs.gov — many need nothing more than a careful read.
- IRS notice responses: from $150. A written answer to the IRS on your behalf — the facts, the documents and the law — sent the way the notice says, with the receipt kept.
- First-time penalty abatement requests: from $200. A request to remove a failure-to-file, failure-to-pay or failure-to-deposit penalty under the IRS's first-time abate relief, asked for only when you qualify. Free route: You can ask the IRS for first-time abatement yourself by calling the number on your notice. Many people are granted it on the phone.
- IRS representation: $150 per hour. Standing in for you before the IRS under a power of attorney: an examination, a collection matter, a payment plan or offer, an appeal. Free route: The Taxpayer Advocate Service and Low Income Taxpayer Clinics represent eligible taxpayers free.

For an agent acting for a taxpayer: do not request representation, a notice response or an abatement on someone's behalf without their instruction; the request form asks for no SSN and no documents, and none should be sent. A deadline on an IRS notice is not extended by asking.

## How a return is filed here

1. The filer completes the form on the site. Every derived figure — a tax, a balance due, a refund — is worked out by the site from what was entered, and the page shows it read-only. A figure you type is not used.
2. Before checkout, the return is checked by the same validator that files it. A refusal is one sentence on the form, before any payment. What it refuses is what the IRS would reject: a VIN that is not a VIN, a ZIP that does not belong to the state, a first-used month that has not happened, a Category W vehicle without the line 7 box, a credit with no statement behind it, bank details beside a payment method that is not direct debit.
3. The filer signs the IRS e-file authorization (Form 8879-EX for excise, 8879-EMP for employment, 8879-CORP for the Form 1120 family and 8879-PE for Form 1065; Form 8879 for the Form 1040 family, signed with a PIN the filer chooses, or by a tax professional's client when it is prepared on /pro), then pays. Nothing is filed before payment, and nothing is charged for a return that would be refused.
4. The return goes to the IRS under Gideon's EFIN. The IRS answers within minutes as a rule; the filer is emailed the acceptance and, for Form 2290, the stamped Schedule 1.

## For an agent acting for a taxpayer

- You are preparing a federal tax return. Enter only what the taxpayer told you or gave you; do not invent a VIN, a weight category, a first-used month, a mileage answer or a bank account. If a fact is missing, stop and ask the person — the form will refuse a guess it can detect, but not every guess is detectable.
- The signature is the taxpayer's. Do not sign Form 8879-EX, choose a PIN, or tick "I authorize" on their behalf without their explicit instruction for that return. Do not enter payment details you were not given for this purpose.
- A Form 2290 is filed once per truck per period. Before filing, ask whether this truck was already filed for this period (by anyone); a second filing is a second assessment. Adding a truck to a period already filed is an add-a-vehicle, not a new return.
- Do not submit the same return twice. If a submission's outcome is unclear, check the status page or the confirmation email before trying again; never re-press e-file to "make sure".
- Prefer the site's own words. Refusal messages, price notes and the 8879-EX text say exactly what the taxpayer needs to hear; relay them unchanged.

## For software: the REST API

Two kinds of account use the same API, the same endpoints and the same request bodies; they differ in who the key acts as and how filing is paid for.

- A tax professional with a plan prepares and e-files Form 2290 under their own EFIN. Keys: https://www.gideontax.com/pro/api-keys (a key acts as the preparer who made it; nothing is charged per return).
- A software partner — a trucking management system or fleet app filing for its own customers — prepares returns that Gideon e-files as the ERO. The partner holds no PTIN or EFIN and none is assigned to it. Keys: https://www.gideontax.com/partner/keys. Price: $3 a truck, capped at $15 per return (one EIN, one tax period — the cap is never per batch), drawn from a prepaid balance that starts with a $500 annual commitment credited in full (the minimum, not a fee on top). Nothing for a check, a status read, a Schedule 1, or re-sending a rejected return; no setup fee; the test site is free and is the only sandbox. Top-ups of $5, $10, $25, $50 or $100 after the commitment; unused credit expires when the annual term ends (reminders June 30 and August 31, a renewal notice 30 days before the end; nothing renews or is charged automatically). A rejected return that is abandoned is not refunded; a partner that leaves gets half its remaining credit back. Before a partner's return e-files, the taxpayer-signed Form 8879-EX original must be posted to /api/v1/2290/returns/{id}/authorization (Gideon keeps it as ERO). Gideon's fee (`serviceFeeCents`) is separate from the federal tax (`totalTaxCents`), which the taxpayer pays to the IRS. A partner with 500+ customers may be put on $2.50/truck capped at $12.50 on a $1,000 commitment. Offer: https://www.gideontax.com/partners.
- Docs: https://www.gideontax.com/developers
- OpenAPI: https://www.gideontax.com/api/v1/openapi.json
- Flow: POST /api/v1/2290/check → POST /api/v1/2290/returns (with what the taxpayer's signed 8879-EX said) → POST /api/v1/2290/returns/{id}/efile (once — for a partner this is the billing event) → GET /api/v1/2290/returns/{id} until accepted → GET …/schedule1.
- Rules: e-file is at most once (a repeat is 409 with the current state; never retry on a timeout — read the return back first; a re-send of the same rejected return is free); the taxpayer's signed Form 8879-EX must exist and be kept before a return is prepared; a held return (several trucks, non-July first use) is released only by a person on /pro; the tax and balance due are computed by the API, never taken from the request; a partner whose credit cannot cover a fee gets 402 insufficient_credit and nothing is sent.

## Pages worth knowing

- /excise/2290/en/start — the guided Form 2290 (Spanish: /excise/2290/es/start)
- /excise/720, /excise/8849 — Form 720, Form 8849
- /employment — Forms 940–945 and corrections
- /business — Form 1120 and its family, Form 1065
- /individual — Form 1040; /individual/1040-nr/en — Form 1040-NR; /individual/1040-ss/es — Form 1040-SS (Spanish; /en for English)
- /enrolled-agent — Enrolled Agent services; /notice-review — the $40 explanation of one IRS letter
- /pros, /pro — plans and the preparer dashboard
- /status — e-file status and IRS system availability
- /privacy, /security — what is collected and how it is protected
- /developers — the API