TurboTax introduces a tax service just for gig workers

The gig economy is only growing, and TurboTax knows it.

The tax preparation company on Thursday introduced a product tailored to the 55 million Americans who work as freelancers or in the tech ecosystem's gig jobs.

TurboTax Self-Employed combines personal and business tax needs for freelancers who are technically considered their own small business. The program searches freelancers' often co-mingled personal and business finances to find deductibles and comes with video access to professional CPAs who specialize in self-employed clients.

"This market has existed for some time when you think about people working as freelancers, but it continues to accelerate because of the tech and on-demand economy," TurboTax general manager Dan Wernikoff told Mashable.

Of course anyone filing taxes wants to get the best deductions and expertise. But for freelancers, the process is more complicated.

"If you're self-employed, it can be a bit of a surprise. You're paid in gross and get the full amount of pay from whatever employer. You don't have a concept of how much is safe to spend," Wernikoff said. "It's a struggle to know what they can spend versus what they can save, if they're even savvy enough to know they have to pay taxes."

The alternative for people who are self-employed has so far been to hire a professional CPA, said Jonathan Medows, a CPA who works with the Freelancers' Union.

"Any tool that comes out targeted toward the self-employed is going to be an improvement," Medows said.

TurboTax's tax preparation service could apply to either a lawyer who charges hundreds of dollars an hour or an Uber driver figuring out what he owes come April 15.

TurboTax is the latest company to try to meet the needs of a growing class of workers who don't have traditional employers. While WeWork provides office space for freelancers, TurboTax is handling those workers' taxes.

The service costs $89 for the first year.