TurboTax is a very good tool for straightforward 1040. For a more complicated return, you need know something about taxes. Some explanations can be confusing, but the IRS documentation or information online can be just as confusing. Some of the areas where improvement would be beneficial are: how to change the basis of your sold property, additional information on what can be deducted from your settlement (HUD-1) charges.
I've been using TurboTax for years to file (I use a 1040 long), and find it reasonably priced for what they offer.
I have used turbo tax for years and highly recommend it. As our lives have evolved with changes such as retirement, I can still rely on Turbo Tax. The only issues I tend to need to do a little extra homework with are retirement and state level programs when I'm working on the state part of the return. The federal portion is clear, the state requires a little more work on my part.
I've used this software for many years... This year I kept noticing it making me do a lot of work (e.g. entering lots of education expense information) when I was never going to be eligible for the deduction — it was all irrelevant.
I'm also still uneasy about all the hawking at the end. It just seems inappropriate — you're helping me prepare my taxes! I'd like there to be an option at the start "will you be interested in third-party offers" or some such.
It was very easy to use. The one thing that annoyed me - every time I finished a topic, it would go to a review page and I'd have to scroll down in order to go to the next page. I had to go back and change one of my answers and had to go online to figure out how. They didn't make that simple to do.
It imported all my financial information which was excellent. I had 8 pages of financials imported that I would have had to enter myself. It did calculations of my financials that I wouldn't have known how to do. This part was awesome.
I have had a preparer for many years and decided to do myself this year. It was very thorough and easy. I'm sure next year will be even better since it will fill in from this year.