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TurboTax Review
presented by Shopperosity.com
TurboTax Deluxe Online is the ultimate tax preparation product and easily wins the "Best of Breed" award for online tax filing. TurboTax offers compelling features, a robust help system and simple navigation coupled with an online community of knowledgeable customers who are willing to help each other out.
TurboTax Deluxe Online offers both federal and state filing as separate products, and E-Filing is free for both. You may also print and mail your return if you prefer that. TurboTax easily takes care of the average taxpayer's needs and also handles more complex tax situations. If you want to itemize deductions, take deductions for a home office, have foreign investment income or enter have adoption tax credit, TurboTax can handle it all with relative ease. If your tax situation is quite simple, TurboTax even offers a free edition. On the other hand, if you have a more complicated tax return you may want to consider the TurboTax Premier or if you own your own small business or have rental properties, you may want to consider the Home & Business version.
The TurboTax Design Is Nearly Perfect
Of all the tax preparation programs, TurboTax Deluxe Online has the best design and navigation according to mast users.
TurboTax gives you extreme ease in jumping from section to section without losing site of where you are in the process. TurboTax also offers multiple ways to enter information. There is an extremely intuitive interview process which makes it a breeze, especially for new tax filers. But if you are more experienced, you can easily bypass the interview and enter information into the exact forms of your choosing. The program navigation is easy to follow, even for first time tax filers or novice computer users.
A nice feature of TurboTax is that it groups related items together on a single page and then allows you to check the ones that apply to you. This feature saves you time and frustration from answering "no" question after question, especially when dealing with some of the less-common tax situations.
Getting Started with TurboTax Online is Easy
Signing up for a TurboTax account is easy: Enter a user name, choose a password, answer a security question , and give them your email address and you’re done! You can start preparing your tax return immediately. If your return requires a fee, you don't have to pay until you file or print the return. This makes it a great way to test out the software before committing to it.
TurboTax has always been the industry leader in making their tax preparation software easy to use, and each year they seem to add new innovations to keep their software on the cutting edge. The TurboTax way of doing taxes follows a linear process so all you need to do is answer the questions as they are presented to you. If you are uncertain whether you need to fill out a particular form, or whether a specific deduction applies to you, contextual help links are always a mouse click away. If you need to get more information, you can always dig deeper into the extensive help library available. TurboTax is very aggressive in presenting you every opportunity to claim deductions. It even checks your return after you have finished and suggests certain deductions you may have missed based on the information you have provided. Intuit also offers professional tax advice, but unlike TaxCut which offers one free session with a tax professional, TurboTax only offers such a service for an additional fee.
TurboTax Has the Most Complete Feature Set of All Tax Software TurboTax Deluxe offers every feature you need and includes some extra features you may not have even thought about. As for compatibility, TurboTax can import data from most of the major tax software packages as well as the most popular financial software. TurboTax makes filing your return easy and once you complete your federal return, the program can pre-fill your state return almost instantly, saving you a lot of duplicate entry hassle.
Beyond the basics, TurboTax also offers:
- Medical Expense Deductions
- Quick Entry for Investments
- Deductions/Credits Guided Interviews
- Amortization Calculators
- Suggestions for Documenting Next Years Deductions
- Extensive Tax Library
- Error Checking and Deduction Finder
- Direct Deposit of Refunds
- Year-to-year Deduction Comparisons
- Electronic Filing with Confirmation of Receipt
- Audit Defense
TurboTax is able to automatically try out different tax scenarios behind the scenes and then suggest to you the best path for a maximum tax refund. TurboTax is able to evaluate your 401K contributions and estimate how much you can contribute before it affects your take home pay and so on. Several other "what if" type of calculators are available to help you make the wisest financial decisions you can without the advice of a financial planner or tax specialist. This useful tool not only takes the stress out of the tax season, but it can also save you a lot of cash in the long run.
TurboTax Deluxe Online also has one of the most extensive help sections available on the market for tax preparation. You can choose normal text explanations, but there are also audio and video snippets on various topics that can help you understand recent tax law changes or otherwise complicated tax scenarios.
One feature that is unique to TurboTax is their great online community. Members help each other out with various forums and there are many helpful and active members. If you have a question, TurboTax will search the community forums for similar questions and present you with a list of previously answered questions that are similar. This is usually enough to help, but if your question is truly new and unique, one of the many helpful members will usually have it answered in short order. The Final Word
TurboTax Deluxe Online has improved every year and is widely held as the best tax preparation product on the market for home tax preparers. We concur with that opinion. TurboTax is easy to use and can turn a complicated, lengthy process into a breeze.
If you prefer the traditional desktop application software to the online version, TurboTax Deluxe is also available in a software box version that can be shipped to you or instantly downloaded. The software includes federal and state filing and all of the convenient features of the online version. Using the online service eliminates the need to install the program and maintain backups of your tax files. If your system crashes, your files are always safe on the TurboTax servers. But as always -- the choice is your.
But if you are planning to do your taxes yourself this year, you simply can't go wrong picking TurboTax.
Back to the Tax Preparation Software Review
Also see:
H&R Block Taxcut Review
CompleteTax Review
TaxBrain Review |
