TurboTax is best for wage-earners, investors, and the self-employed
You can finish a tax return with TurboTax rather fast quickly if you have a simple, straightforward tax situation. This makes even the basic edition of TurboTax a great deal for people who want to finish their taxes quickly. Speed and accuracy are important, as no one wants to rush through a return only to make a mistake. TurboTax even caught a data entry typo I made when entering my W-2 form. This is a common tax preparation mistake, and TurboTax quickly prompted me to verify my numbers to make sure everything was correct.For complex tax returns, TurboTax Home & Business, Intuit's top-of-the-line tax software, handled my demanding and complex tax scenario with a minimum of frustration. Their step-by-step interview questions were clear, appropriate, and not too overwhelming. The Online versions of TurboTax share all the same features as the desktop software. If you need to set up business assets, you will find TurboTax offers a great set-by-step approach to depreciation.
Intuit includes the ItsDeductible software for calculating the fair market value of items donated to charity in Deluxe and higher versions of TurboTax. Premier and Home & Business versions feature the Basis Pro service for extra help in calculating your cost basis in stocks and mutual funds.
TurboTax includes Live Community for Help
New for this year, Intuit has turned the entire TurboTax user base into a community for sharing tips and providing help. The Live Community provides a Question-and-Answer forum for getting help either with the software or with tax issues, right from the software interface. The questions showing up from the Live Community are context sensitive. For example, when I was entering my W2, I saw the question "Is it possible to use a pay stub to efile?" You can also ask a question right from the software too. While I was skeptical at first, Intuit's Live Community provided answers to my questions about the software faster than digging through Intuit's help web site or fumbling through the software looking for the worksheet I needed.
TurboTax continues to improve and revise their navigation system. However, I still have trouble finding certain data entry screens. For example, the "Find Deductions Myself" button under the Deductions & Credits tab will bring up a complete list of all tax breaks. Whereas the "Maximize My Deductions" button, however, will guide you step-by-step through the most popular deductions and skip over less popular areas of the tax form. The same is true in the Income areas of the software. Clicking "Specific Topics" brings up a complete list of all types of income, while clicking on "Guide Me" presents income topics one at a time. Just be aware that there are multiple ways to find the same module.
TurboTax supports the split refunds feature, which allows taxpayers to deposit their refunds in up to three bank or retirement accounts.
TurboTax Product Versions
TurboTax from Intuit comes in nine different versions -- four versions of desktop software and five versions of online software.Desktop software versions:
- TurboTax Basic ($19.95 federal only + $34.95 state + $17.95 e-file)
- TurboTax Deluxe ($44.95 federal and state + $17.95 e-file)
- TurboTax Premier ($74.95 federal and state + $17.95 e-file)
- TurboTax Home and Business ($89.95 federal and state + $17.95 e-file)
- TurboTax Free (free federal + $25.95 state)
- TurboTax Basic ($14.95 federal + $29.95 state)
- TurboTax Deluxe ($29.95 federal + $29.95 state)
- TurboTax Premier ($49.95 federal + $29.95 state)
- TurboTax Home and Business ($74.95 federal + $29.95 state)
More TurboTax Resources
From About Financial Software:- TaxCut vs TurboTax: Which Tax Software to Buy for Tax Year 2007
- Before You Buy Tax Software
- Review of TurboTax Software
- CNET: "It's not perfect, but if you're brave enough to manage your own taxes, then TurboTax 2007 is Intuit's best tax application yet."
- PC Magazine: Editors Choice. "TurboTax is an impressively complete tax solution for home and business, but this year the gap between it and the competition has narrowed."
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