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Wednesday, March 07, 2012

TurboTax review

I typically do my own taxes. In the previous years, I typically used to use TaxAct, an excellent software but this year, I was offered to try out TurboTax online for free, so decided to give it a try and write this post.

Overall, I found TurboTax to be similar to what most other tax software do - make the tax of filing taxes relatively easier and quicker. First a little bit about the product itself. TurboTax can be installed both locally on your desktop or you can fill out the taxes online at their Web site. If installing locally, you can download the product from their Web site (TurboTax.Intuit.com) or from stores like Best Buy and Amazon.com.

For both the online and desktop products, there are different versions including Basic, Deluxe, Premier, and Home and Business, with Basic version being the cheapest. Starting prices for doing federal taxes online with these versions can range from $19.95 for TurboTax Basic to $19.95 for TurboTax Home and Business. However, actual prices for the online versions may be different as TurboTax site determines prices at the time of print or e-file. Prices for the desktop products are typically slightly higher. For prices and features of each version of online and desktop product, check out:

Comparison of TurboTax Online Product Versions

As with most other tax applications, TurboTax is relatively easy to use, and unless your tax situation is complex or you don't want to do your taxes yourself, you may be able to do away with your CPA in many cases. The application walks you through various data entry screens where you can enter the necessary information. The site interface is very nice and easy to navigate. The site makes the task of filling out taxes easy by asking questions.

Some of the new features in TurboTax this year include:

- For the first time, TurboTax is offering everyone free one-on-one tax advice from an experienced tax professional live, by phone or chat

- TurboTax 2011 provides step-by-step guidance through over 350 deductions and credits with special guidance for first time customers

- TurboTax automatically transfers essential tax data from more than 400,000 employers, banks, financial institutions and credit unions into your return

- TurboTax Audit Support Guarantee provides free one-on-one audit guidance year-round from an experienced tax professional to help you prepare in the event you receive an audit letter from the IRS

- TurboTax has also released new versions of its popular SnapTax app for iPhone and Android, as well as an updated TurboTax app for iPad, making it even easier to prepare and file taxes anytime and anywhere

In my view, these additional advantages give TurboTax a big edge over many of the other tax software applicaitons.

Overall, I found TurboTax online to be very good and the site does its best to make the task of completing and filing taxes as much easy as possible. The site also makes it easy to try it out for free.

For more information about TurboTax as well as customer reviews on its site, check out:

TurboTax.Intuit.com

TurboTax.Intuit.com: Customer Reviews

Note: For writing this review, I received a TurboTax Online Premier code for filing my taxes. In addition, I am also an affiliate of Amazon.com.

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Labels: invest, tax

posted by Ruby @ 11:45 AM

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