The program gets better every year. It is not only intuitive but is also comprehensive. Anyone from a beginner to a tax accountant can use it with ease and confidence. I can find only two problems with the program and they are recurring.
1. When going through the items for categories, such as Business Income, after completing an item the next menu is always at the bottom of the screen. It is quite annoying as you have to scroll to the bottom of the page after completing each category. There should be a "Next " button at the top of the screen rather than the bottom. This might possibly be achieved by having the categories appear in reverse order with the most recently entered category at the top of the page rather than the bottom.
2. The entry for supporting schedules is very inefficient. As soon as you begin entering an amount in the field for an item for which you have used a supporting schedule in the prior year the supporting schedule opens. However you have no warning and when you are typing amounts you don't realize that the schedule is open and the program deletes the description line of the first entry and starts typing the amount you are entering. The problem with this is you cannot back out of the schedule to retain last year's description entry. If you cannot remember what was the first entry on the schedule you have to recreate it by checking your prior return. The supporting schedule should open to the amount column not the description column.
What's great about it: Easy. Straight forward. Gets better every year.
What's not so great: 1) Supporting schedules are flawed. 2) Too much time wasted on menus for entering certain items. (See review)
Error is software for more than one 2013 Business. Although the information was entered for each individual business, it did not total for 2013 on summary page.
My return is very involved with rental property, business, investments and home expenses and it is very time consuming.
What's great about it: Transfers from previous years return is easy
What's not so great: Difficult to correct errors resulting from previous years information
I gather the same info for my accountant, so I save $ by inputting the info myself. The Master Limited Partnership (MLP) however needs serious work. My take on it is the IRS hasn't wrapped their heads around MLPs themselves yet, so this may not be entirely TT's fault, but regardless, the input is terrible.
What's great about it: Easy to understand and use.
What's not so great: A couple of Mac flaws, MLP issues
Did not let me enter direct-deposit information for my Michigan state tax refund. Had to print forms,manually fill in, and mail the last two years. Did not let me enter actual state sales tax data on my federal 1040 Schedule A, which was higher than the TurboTax "estimated" value. I had to choose between state/local tax data or TurboTax incorrect sales-tax amount.
One year I went to a tax service and had to fix their errors. When I tried Turbo Tax it lead me through all the possible deductions. I go more deductions from Turbo tax than the tax service. I have been using Turbo Tax for more than 10 years and I would not even think of another product or going back to a tax service. Way to go Turbo Tax.
What's great about it: Turbo Tax has never let me down
What's not so great: Might be more fun if Turbo Tax could talk
I have been using Turbo Tax since 1995 and every year it has gotten better and easier to use. Even I started my own business, it was still the best rout for me. It makes filling out forms so much easier. If I were to do this by hand, I would not know where to start. It's amazing to see the number of forms that are automatically filled out just by responding to question. Once one prints out the return, one can see the stack of papers that are used.
I also like the audit protection that they provide. I hope I never have to use it, but I'm relieved that it's there.
I am pleased with the program.
What's great about it: Easy to use
What's not so great: none
Pros: My job status changed this year (switched jobs, lost a job, got a raise or promotion)