--- description: Find out why Column Tax is one of the best inventions of 2024 title: Column Tax: the 200 Best Inventions of 2024 image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltcc67b2e0014f9b1f/698a9140c9e941302b1235fc/column-tax-best-inventions.jpeg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 --- Oct 30, 2024 # Simplifying Tax Returns by [Don Steinberg](/author/don-steinberg-3/) ## Don Steinberg Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close  Wong Yu Liang—Getty Images Millions of Americans eligible for free income tax filing don’t take advantage of it, in part because it isn’t well integrated with the rest of their financial lives. Column Tax figures it’s cheaper and easier when tax filing is part of a banking or accounting application you’re already using, so it’s building a bridge to connect those apps with tax prep. “There’s no reason tax needs to be separate,” says CEO and co-founder Gavin Nachbar. The company’s application programming interfaces (APIs) allow apps like Chime and Nerdwallet to embed free tax filing into their offerings, using already stored data plus other sources as needed. This year, Column Tax processed over $150 million in refunds in its first full tax season, for people in all 50 states. Learn More at [Column Tax](https://www.columntax.com/ "undefined") These are independent reviews of the products mentioned, but TIME receives a commission when purchases are made through affiliate links at no additional cost to the purchaser. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"Article","@id":"https://time.com/collections/best-inventions-2024/7094552/column-tax/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/collections/best-inventions-2024/7094552/column-tax/"},"headline":"Column Tax: the 200 Best Inventions of 2024","datePublished":"2024-10-30T11:11:22.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T11:54:25.690Z","description":"Find out why Column Tax is one of the best inventions of 2024","url":"https://time.com/collections/best-inventions-2024/7094552/column-tax/","keywords":["Tech","E-Commerce","list","franchise","Magazine","best inventions"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltcc67b2e0014f9b1f/698a9140c9e941302b1235fc/column-tax-best-inventions.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Don Steinberg","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/don-steinberg-3/"}],"creator":"Don Steinberg","articleSection":"Business","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltcc67b2e0014f9b1f/698a9140c9e941302b1235fc/column-tax-best-inventions.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/business/","name":"Business"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-tech/","name":"Tech"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/collections/best-inventions-2024/7094552/column-tax/","name":"Column Tax: the 200 Best Inventions of 2024"}}]}] ```