1..Obtain all information about health and long term care insurance at one time and in one place. Currently you collect medicare information when you deal with Social security entries, and others at other times. I almost forgot to enter payments I have deducted from my Federal pension for health insurance .
2. On the Vermont State program ,you should be much clearer in your instructions about the treatment of capital gains income from the sale of business property.. If you have business losses (which are inevitable in the case of the Timber and Christmas Tree industries) the capital gains should be used as a set off against those losses as permitted by state law. This does not affect state income taxes but it does affect "Household Income " reported on HS 122 which in turn can affect Property tax refunds.
What's great about it: I would like you to use a few more wordsin descibing entries
For the past ten years, I have used TurboTax and I have had to pay the AMT. What I do not like is the every year TurboTax asks for information from previous years AMT. Get information from a previous year and it is always the same - why it can't bring the data forward is aggravating.
I used to do my own taxes on the IRS PDF forms, until some complex investments I inherited led to needing to file hundreds of pages of forms. It is impressive that they have programmed nearly every strange permutation and situation into the software. Definitely requires less research on my end to let the software figure out what values need to end up on which other forms.
What's great about it: Easier to file complicated invesment forms.
What's not so great: Less understanding of the process when the software does it all for you.
I honestly find turbo tax very easy to use. I don't have professional accounting experience and I don't keep up with the tax laws, but Turbo Tax does all the calculating for me. I entered the information and it did all the work. I pay enough in taxes, the last thing I want is to pay an accountant.
What's great about it: I had what could of been a complicated return. Turbo Tax simplified it for me and told me what to enter!
Pros: My job status changed this year (switched jobs, lost a job, got a raise or promotion)
Generally, this is the most useful tax preparation tool available. I do not understand why people with simple returns still pay a tax preparation "specialist."
What's great about it: Improved transparency and step-by-step process makes tax preparation less stressful.
What's not so great: Cannot see form being completed during process.