I AM A TEN+ YEAR USER OF TURBOTAX. THIS YEAR A LINE ON MY TURBOTAX 1040 REFERRED TO FORM 2210, BUT THE FORM DID NOT SHOW UP ON THE FORMS LIST..... A LADY WITH THE TENACITY OF BULLDOG FOUND THE PROPER LINK FOR ME.
I love doing my taxes using TurboTax. It is relatively painless and I love the money it saves me on my tax bill as well as the several hundred it would cost me to go to an accountant.
What's great about it: well guided through the process
What's not so great: not always sure whether something applies to me
My daughter has capital loss, her tax is < then standard deduction. Can't stop TurboTax from auto deducting $3000 capital loss. Manually override and then gives me error message. Where is the feature where mortgage loan does not have a 1099 statement. Need that feature. This is common when family loan money to kids.
What's great about it: easy step by step
What's not so great: can't get TurboTax to skip some auto deduction
I've used TurboTax for many years, beginning when there were mini-videos providing tax expertise (wisely discontinued). The process has only gotten better over the years. I can't think of doing my taxes any other way.
What's great about it: Easy to use, minimizes stress of filing taxes
What's not so great: Processing non-monetary deductions still a chore
I had a new home purchase in 2013 and points were paid during close of escrow. TurboTax pointed out that points must be spread over the life of the loan if the loan is a: - Loan on a second home - Home equity loan, or - Loan to refinance your home (if not used for home improvements) None of these were my situation. For my situation, TurboTax says "If you purchased your home in 2013 or refinanced it to make improvements, we'll deduct all of your points on your current tax return rather than amortize them over the life of the loan".
My situation is that since we closed on the house near the end of 2013 I did not incur enough interest on the loan to itemize for 2013 so deducting all of my points on my current return doesn't reduce my taxes at all. However, spreading the points over the life of the loan will at least allow me to deduct the majority of the points in future years if I itemize in future years. TurboTax didn't suggest that I spread the points over the life of the loan and doesn't even mention that spreading the points over the life of the loan was even an option for someone in my situation.
It makes me wonder what other potential optimizations were missed.
On a separate issue, when I was going back and referencing previous sections in TurboTax I made no changes in the previous sections that were referenced but entries made in subsequent sections had been removed by TurboTax causing me to need to re-enter them before I could return to the place where I had left to reference the previous sections.
Overall, I would say that TurboTax was not as well "connected" this year as in previous years.
What's great about it: calculations seem accurate
What's not so great: TurboTax didn't optimize my tax situation, had to repeat inputs
This was a waste of money. For the hours spent trying to enter, reenter and fix a few minor errors and corrections, I could have hired an expensive professional,
What's great about it: Questions and Answers
What's not so great: Very difficult to get through to review after