Tax software preferences

12 years ago

Following on the same vein as alisande's thread about doing your own taxes......

for those that do do their own taxes, which program do you prefer and why? I've seen mostly TurboTax, HRBlock and TaxAct commented on.

I did like BeeOHIO's idea of running the taxes through 2 different programs, good idea!

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Comments (3)

Fun2BHere
12 years ago
As I mentioned in the other thread, I switched from TurboTax to HRBlock's Tax Cut because TurboTax didn't have one of the forms I needed. I don't know if they have since added it as that was several years ago.
rob333 (zone 7b)
12 years ago
I did what Bee suggested a couple of years ago and compared turbo and another really popular program... same exact dollar amount. I think for a fairly simple return (like I didn't have any stock activity to claim, but a bit of alimony that year. Not completely stripped down) it really doesn't matter. I stayed with TurboTax, they keep my returns from year to year, if I should lose my hard copies or the PDFs I keep. I can't imagine a third fail-safe, but it's there if I need it.
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I found Turbo Tax in a lot of different stores around here. I think it's still the #1 tax software. I'm going to give TaxAct a try to see how it does. I already did my taxes using Turbo Tax, but decided to d/l TaxAct to see whether it gets the answers right. If so, I may use it as my primary next year. I'll post what I find after trying it out. I started it last night (but didn't finish) and a quick observation is that you have to go through a lot more screens to get something done. I also like the way TurboTax imports things from last year and uses them as a starting point. If you haven't changed employers, that can save some time. The way they prompt with last years' 1099s helped me realize I was missing one. If I had just entered based on what I had, I'd have missed one.
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i agree with jlhug, a friend used turbo tax and had a refund of 5000.00. i double checked it for her and found she actually was only getting back 1500.00 the mistake, she was claiming everyone in the house as a dependant, even though they each had their own income and claimed themselves. the sad thing is she had done this for 5 years running and never been caught!
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I disappear for awhile, come back and this is still on the front page. Wow! Slow moving post. :-) I used to get my taxes done early - like February. But then we started having to *pay in*, and really, who's in a hurry to do that? I sold Avon for awhile too, and that seriously made taxes a nightmare, since I'm a horrible bookkeeper. Next year will be different though. I quit Avon awhile ago, so no more business stuff to worry about. And hubby is switching jobs this summer to a far lower salary (for stability, his company was bought, and seems to be in the process of dismantling itself), so we'll be in a lower tax bracket - less taxes owed. I dare say I'll have our taxes done in Feb. next year, since we shouldn't owe anything for the first time in years (or not as much, anyways)! Funny how that works...
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wanda_va
12 years ago
I have used Turbo Tax in the past, but switched to TaxAct a number of years ago. It seems more user-friendly to me. I appreciate that they remember me from year-to-year, which makes the process go faster. A few years ago, I really messed up on long- and short-term capital gains--it was easy to do an amended return.

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Tax software preferences

Comments (3)

Fun2BHere

rob333 (zone 7b)

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wanda_va

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