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Accounting · head to head

Money Forward Cloud vs TaxAct

Money Forward Cloud logo

Money Forward Cloud

Accounting

Japanese cloud accounting, payroll and back office suite built for Japanese tax law and filing

From
On request
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite
TaxAct logo

TaxAct

Accounting

Get your maximum refund, guaranteed

From
Free
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite

The short version

  • Only TaxAct has a free tier, so it costs nothing to try first.
  • Each has a real cost: Money Forward Cloud the product, its help documentation and its support operate in Japanese, so a finance function without a fluent Japanese reader cannot run it unaided regardless of any English language marketing, and hiring for that is the real cost of adoption.; TaxAct free edition available only to approximately 40% of filers
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 31 August 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Money Forward Cloud and TaxAct actually diverge.

Attributes where Money Forward Cloud and TaxAct differ
AttributeMoney Forward CloudTaxAct
Starting priceOn requestFree
Pricing modelquoteone-time
Free tierNoYes

Identical on both: platforms (Web), user rating (Not yet rated), category (Accounting).

What each one covers

Drawn from each product's published feature list. An absence here means we hold no record of it - not that the product lacks it.

Only in Money Forward Cloud

  • Japanese consumption tax handling
  • Qualified invoice support
  • Electronic record keeping
  • Bank and card feeds
  • Automated journal proposal
  • Invoicing
  • Payroll
  • Attendance and leave

Only in TaxAct

Nothing recorded that Money Forward Cloud does not also cover.

What people use each for

The jobs each tool is most often brought in to do.

Money Forward Cloud

  • A Japanese small or medium company moving off desktop bookkeeping and needing qualified invoice and electronic record keeping compliancenot TaxAct
  • A Japanese subsidiary of a foreign group that must file locally in Japan while reporting upward in the group's own systemnot TaxAct
  • A growing Japanese company that wants payroll, attendance and social insurance administration in the same suite as the ledgernot TaxAct
  • A tax accountancy practice standardising its client base on one cloud product with a practitioner access rolenot TaxAct

TaxAct

  • Individual tax filingnot Money Forward Cloud
  • Self-employed tax preparationnot Money Forward Cloud

Where each one falls short

Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal use.

Money Forward Cloud

  • The product, its help documentation and its support operate in Japanese, so a finance function without a fluent Japanese reader cannot run it unaided regardless of any English language marketing, and hiring for that is the real cost of adoption.
  • The tax logic is Japanese, so it cannot serve as the accounting system for entities filing anywhere else, and a group with Japanese and foreign entities ends up running two ledgers with a manual consolidation between them.
  • Modules are licensed separately with per user and per employee components, so accounting, payroll, attendance, expenses and invoicing bought together cost several times the headline accounting plan and the bill grows with every hire.
  • Bank connectivity in Japan relies substantially on scraping and delegated access rather than on a standardised open banking interface, so feeds break after bank site changes and reconciliation stalls until the connector is fixed.
  • In Japanese small business the tax accountant usually chooses the bookkeeping software, and practitioners are divided between Money Forward, freee and Yayoi, so picking it when your accountant works in another product means either paying them to learn it or changing accountant.

TaxAct

  • Free edition available only to approximately 40% of filers
  • Pricing excludes separate state filing fees
  • Xpert Full Service pricing available on request only

Pricing, plan by plan

Money Forward Cloud

On request

No published plan breakdown. See the Money Forward Cloud review.

TaxAct

Free
  • Free EditionFree
    • W-2 income
    • Unemployment
    • Basic credits and deductions
  • Deluxe$59.99/tax-year
    • All Free Edition features
    • Home ownership deductions
    • Childcare and dependent care
  • Premier$99.99/tax-year
    • All Deluxe features
    • Investment income and capital gains
    • Cryptocurrency reporting
  • Self-Employed$109.99/tax-year
    • Complete business support
    • For contractors, freelancers, and sole proprietors

Which should you pick?

Choose Money Forward Cloud if

  • You need japanese consumption tax handling.
  • You also want qualified invoice support.
Money Forward Cloud review

Choose TaxAct if

  • You want to start without paying.
TaxAct review

Questions people ask

Is Money Forward Cloud or TaxAct better?
Neither clearly leads. Money Forward Cloud starts at On request and TaxAct at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Money Forward Cloud or TaxAct?
TaxAct has a free tier; the other does not. Paid plans start at On request for Money Forward Cloud and Free for TaxAct.
Does Money Forward Cloud or TaxAct run on more platforms?
Both run on Web, so platform support will not decide this one for you.
Can I use TaxAct for free?
Yes. TaxAct has a free tier, so you can try it without paying. Money Forward Cloud starts at On request.
What is Money Forward Cloud best used for?
Money Forward Cloud is most often used for a japanese small or medium company moving off desktop bookkeeping and needing qualified invoice and electronic record keeping compliance, a japanese subsidiary of a foreign group that must file locally in japan while reporting upward in the group's own system, a growing japanese company that wants payroll, attendance and social insurance administration in the same suite as the ledger, a tax accountancy practice standardising its client base on one cloud product with a practitioner access role. Of those, a japanese small or medium company moving off desktop bookkeeping and needing qualified invoice and electronic record keeping compliance and a japanese subsidiary of a foreign group that must file locally in japan while reporting upward in the group's own system are not what TaxAct is typically brought in for.
What can Money Forward Cloud do that TaxAct cannot?
Money Forward Cloud covers Japanese consumption tax handling, Qualified invoice support, Electronic record keeping, Bank and card feeds.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Money Forward Cloud: Can I use it if I do not read Japanese?

Not realistically on your own. The interface, support and the tax concepts themselves are Japanese. Companies that succeed with it have a bilingual bookkeeper or an English speaking tax accountant operating it.

TaxAct: How much does TaxAct cost?

TaxAct offers a free edition for approximately 40% of filers, Deluxe at $59.99, Premier at $99.99, and Self-Employed at $109.99 per tax year.

Source
Money Forward Cloud: Does it handle the qualified invoice system?

Yes. Capturing and validating supplier registration numbers and retaining invoices in the required form is one of the main reasons Japanese companies moved to it around the 2023 introduction.

TaxAct: Is TaxAct truly free for eligible filers?

Yes, TaxAct's Free Edition is available at no cost for W-2 employees, students, and filers meeting basic income and deduction requirements.

Source
Money Forward Cloud: How does it compare with freee?

Both are Japanese cloud suites covering similar ground. freee is often described as easier for non accountants, Money Forward as closer to conventional bookkeeping and preferred by many tax accountants. The practical tiebreaker is which one your accountant already uses.

TaxAct: What is the difference between Premier and Deluxe plans?

Premier adds support for investment income, capital gains, cryptocurrency, rental properties, and home sale reporting compared to Deluxe.

Source
Money Forward Cloud: Can it file my corporate tax return?

The suite supports the bookkeeping and much of the preparation, and there are filing oriented products in the family, but Japanese corporate tax filing is normally done by a licensed tax accountant. Treat it as the record keeping layer, not the filer.

Money Forward Cloud: Is it usable for a company outside Japan?

No, not as an accounting system. Its value is the Japanese tax and filing logic, and none of that applies elsewhere.

Money Forward Cloud: What does it cost to add payroll?

Payroll is a separate module with its own subscription and a per employee element, as are attendance and expenses. Price the whole stack for your headcount rather than the accounting plan alone.

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