What our customer's say!"Support is woefully inadequate", I made a mistake by inputting my federal withholding amount into
my state withholding amount. I was able to work around and get the program to apparently "correct" my state withholding amount. However, when trying to e-file, the program insists there is an error in the federal program, because I overrode the incorrect state withholding amount.
Now the program will not let me e-file either of my returns and I'm left to mail in paper copies. There is no way I've found to reach a human being to correct the situation; if there is a way to correct it. Evidently if you pay for your returns, in order to get draft printouts, you cannot correct your W-2 input data.
"You Can Not Electroncially File More Than One State Return", If you think you can file more than one state return electronically think again. Intuit only allows one federal and one state return per social security number. Any extra returns must be MAILED in.
"Free with turbo tax-and worth it", I have used both this product and TaxCut by HRBlock/Kiplinger. They are essentially the same, but I give the edge to Quicken and Turbo Tax.
In my mind the best way to think of tax software is that it is just a program that will ask you some questions (ex. about your w-2 or mortgage interest) and then fill out your tax return and do the math. If you then choose you can use the program to e-file your return (great feature). The software works, is very much bug free and can make some complicated things easier to handle.
I have used the program to prepare three returns this year.
1) with a straight w2, the only deduction was student loan interest. This was very simple and was done within a half an hour. I printed out a few copies (no need for a copier) and that was it.
2) A W-2 with many deductions-medical, mortgage, real estate taxes, Brokerage statements from three firms. Estimated tax payments. AND an IRA conversion to a ROTH.
I was very happy to be able to download the statements directly from Vanguard and CSFB Direct. It saved me a lot of data entry (your still need to enter your basis), and it helped me handle the Roth conversion easily.
3) A w-2 with a schedule C for a sole propritorship. I imported directly from Quickbooks. I encountered only a few problems which were caused by misclassifications in Quickbooks-they were not the fault of Turbo Tax.
In all I am very satisfied. I know I saved hundreds of dollars by not using an accountant. I am pretty sophisticated about finincial matters but I was still suprised by how easily the program handled my "complex" situations--they turned out not to be.
Just a warning-don't forget to save the Proof of purchase from you your box. Last year I forgot and I couldn't get my rebate. Also don't forget to get the State edition too. And send in your refund form for e-filing right away-they only give you 30 days
"Free with turbo tax-and worth it", I have used both this product and TaxCut by HRBlock/Kiplinger. They are essentially the same, but I give the edge to Quicken and Turbo Tax.
In my mind the best way to think of tax software is that it is just a program that will ask you some questions (ex. about your w-2 or mortgage interest) and then fill out your tax return and do the math. If you then choose you can use the program to e-file your return (great feature). The software works, is very much bug free and can make some complicated things easier to handle.
I have used the program to prepare three returns this year.
1) with a straight w2, the only deduction was student loan interest. This was very simple and was done within a half an hour. I printed out a few copies (no need for a copier) and that was it.
2) A W-2 with many deductions-medical, mortgage, real estate taxes, Brokerage statements from three firms. Estimated tax payments. AND an IRA conversion to a ROTH.
I was very happy to be able to download the statements directly from Vanguard and CSFB Direct. It saved me a lot of data entry (your still need to enter your basis), and it helped me handle the Roth conversion easily.
3) A w-2 with a schedule C for a sole propritorship. I imported directly from Quickbooks. I encountered only a few problems which were caused by misclassifications in Quickbooks-they were not the fault of Turbo Tax.
In all I am very satisfied. I know I saved hundreds of dollars by not using an accountant. I am pretty sophisticated about finincial matters but I was still suprised by how easily the program handled my "complex" situations--they turned out not to be.
Just a warning-don't forget to save the Proof of purchase from you your box. Last year I forgot and I couldn't get my rebate. Also don't forget to get the State edition too. And send in your refund form for e-filing right away-they only give you 30 days
"Be very careful -- program is glitchy!", CALL YOUR LOCAL TAX DEPARTMENT IF YOU HAVE PROBLEMS WITH ERROR MESSAGES, INSTEAD OF CALLING INTUIT TECH SUPPORT!
I live in New Jersey and worked in New York. Like many people here, I was forced to collect unemployment after 9/11.
TurboTax State took my NY total income and tried to use it in my NJ return which created errors. Then the real nightmare began:
Intuit has an online chat tech support. After 45 minutes of very slow communication, they referred me to phone support. To do this, you need to register with Intuit on-line and they give you a pin number and a phone number to call. The phone number is in Arizona! Over an hour after I called, tech support said they couldn't fix it either and told me to call my local tax office.
NJ tax office gave me a fix for the program immediately: New York State taxes unemployment benefits -- New Jersey doesn't and TurboTax State doesn't take that into account.
Including the phone calls, I paid more for Turbo Tax than I would have paid to my accountant. The TurboTax customer service rep said I would be reimbursed for part of my phone bill -- we'll see.
