Most of the work to taxes is gathering up the data needed, whether you do the taxes yourself or have them done. With Turbotax, you are home to get any needed information from your records. The time it takes to do Turbotax is not much longer than to drive to a preparer and have him inter the information. And paid preparere make mitakes.
What's great about it: A lot was automatically entered from past returns and investment companies. The whole thing didn't take long .
What's not so great: I know I will get the standard deduction, but end up entering all possible deductions. This took most of the time.
I have used TurboTax for several years and been very pleased. This is the first time, it would not let e-file. It kept saying an update needed to be installed before e-filing. After repeatedly looking for updates and being told there were no new updates, I had to resort to mailing.
What's great about it: Overall, TurboTax is easy to use.
I'd like to be able to jump between questions more easily, and to look ahead. For instance, I put a PC purchase into the wrong boxes, and then had to go back and figure which ones when the right question was asked.
It would also be nice to have a mini spreadsheet for some of the questions like on Sched C, so I can type in data and let it add them up for me, and remember them (hopefully for next year, so I can be consistent).
What's great about it: It works, and I can be done in 1 morning
What's not so great: It would help to be able to jump around to particular questions more easily
In addition to the above brief comments, when I had the download glitches (2) the individual/s I spoke with knew their stuff and my Mac and stayed with me until the situation/s were resolved. Pleasant, patient and knowledgable !
What's great about it: Very detailed and easy to understand.
What's not so great: Had some download difficulties
I've been using Turbo Tax Deluxe now for more than 10 years and it just gets better and better. It just amazes me that folks will travel to a tax prep firm, sometimes sit there for who knows how long while their taxes are done by others rather than fill out this simple program on their own. It's so simple a ten year old could do it.