I love this program and have used it for many years, I love that it brings in last year's info. That saves so much time, I love the community answers, they are very helpful. I would like to see some observations delivered if the program sees that filing in a different way may be more beneficial.
What's great about it: walks me thru and explains everything
What's not so great: didn't answer a couple of questions I had due to a change in my life
It took me over four hours to complete my taxes, it usually takes less than an hour - my return is very basic, in the end I had to "cheat" to do so. My wife and I file separately and we live in Nevada a community property state. At the end of the process it asked me to complete Form 8958 - Allocation of Tax Amounts Between Certain Individuals In Community Property States, which I completed. The result was that the system increased my income by the amount I entered for my spouse. the only way I could find to rectify the problem was to remove my spouses income from the form and add it manually to Form 8958 after I had printed it.
What's great about it: User friendly
What's not so great: It go "lost" completing my taxes
Turbo Tax has surprised once again. With it's ability to double and triple check my results I know that things are getting done the right way. No mistakes, no did I forget something, no what if I'm audited, what if I missed something. Gone are the migraine's that accompany the frustration of doing one's taxes. I am so glad that this product is out there for the public! Thank-you Turbo Tax, and thank you for helping me to get a refund!
TurboTax is thorough and simple to use. It persuades confidence. It is well suited for both novice and well trained. It could however be improved. Correcting a tax return is not simple. In trying to get back to some earlier point in the step-by-step instructions you have to go back to the beginning of the topic containing your intended destination and step through to the destination, often having to re-enter responses. This can lead to errors. Secondly in the zeal to abstract the Turbotax process from the actual tax forms, the forms package constituting your return is incomplete. Turbotax does not list line itemization worksheets with the list of forms. They are therefore NOT PRINTED OR SAVED when you save the return as a pdf file. It's as if Turbotax regards them as valueless. When you view the forms on screen, clicking on an item that has an itemization sheet associated with it (which you created during the step-by step instructions) is supposed to allow you to open the sheet, but that often doesn't work. Itemization worksheets are in fact a crucial part of tax returns. They afford reminders of why a value is so, therefore they are essential to even the on-screen display of the tax return forms. They are often used as well as explanation to the IRS and state agencies. Neglecting them from the tax return printouts is therefore a significant failure.
What's great about it: Thorough interview and simple to use
What's not so great: Returning to a point in the interview requires starting from the begining of that interview topic
Used Turbo Tax a number of years, GREAT product!! When using an accountant or tax preparer to do your taxes you still need to gather all the necessary data and provide statistics to the individual. Why pay for them to key in your numbers when you can do it yourself at your leisure, in the comfort of your own home whenever you want to make the time. Then just compare the return to the precious year's return to identify any field that your missed a dollar amount input or a dollar amount very different from your previous return that you should double check for accuracy. Cannot imagine going back and using a paid accountant to do what you can do yourself. I actually look forward to doing my own taxes each year!!!!
What's great about it: You can input a little at a time OR all at once, whichever fits your schedule.
What's not so great: For me, there are no negatives.