Turbo Tax Preview
New for the 2008 version of TurboTax is the addition of a Live Community. Similar to Yahoo Answers, this is a forum where software users can find and ask questions about using the software and finding answers to tax questions. I was a bit skeptical at first, but I quickly ran into a problem when I couldn't find where to put in my SEP-IRA contributions for the year. Using the Live Community, I found an answer from one of Intuit's tax professionals who explained where to find that input screen in the software.
One long-term TurboTax user, however, found a bug in the desktop version of the software. It seems the refund monitor at the top of the software interface doesn't match the tax refund amount found on the tax form at the end of the tax preparation process. We're hoping this is fixed before too long. In the meantime, taxpayers hoping to get an early start on estimating their 2007 taxes might want to use the online edition which does not seem to have the same problem.
Comments
Can we get reviews of other tax preparation tools? I’ve used Turbo in the past, but the free online version only handles 1040EZ and simple returns. I don’t want to pay more than I have to to prepare my taxes.
What do you think of TaxACT? I’ve never used the product, but I am certainly attracted to it’s price.
“Found a bug in the desktop version…” This is not a bug. The help reveals that the refund monitor shows the tax liability using the tax law Congress is EXPECTED to pass to mitigate the impact of the AMT on up to 24 million Americans. The tax liability shown in your Bottom Line is computed based on current tax law. Computing and showing both computations will help taxpayers determine if they need to be concerned about the lack of or need for AMT legislation.
Also, see further information on our web site at http://turbotax.intuit.com/support/kb/tax-content/tax-tips/Refund-Monitor.html that explains this.
I hope this information helps.
Bob Meighan
VP, TurboTax
Turbo Tax Online has more than one bug. It prints garbage instead of the proper forms and there is no solution as yet and no date for a fix. It also can not resolve problems with tax exempt income…it keeps making the same error with no way to resolve. Most unsatisfactory and a reason to move away from Turbo Tax.
Be careful with Turbo Tax. If you’re doing a basic income tax its fine but if you are even close to having to deal with AMT hire an accountant. I now owe over $700 in interest from 2006 as Turbo Tax did not calculate the AMT correctly.