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View Full Version : Do you use Turbo Tax or some other tax program?



dennis thompson
01-05-2017, 5:00 PM
I have been using Turbo Tax for many years. I like the fact that it will automatically transfer my info from the past year to the current year. However each year it seems they try to squeeze a little more out of me. It looks like they will now be charging for the state tax program with Turbo Tax Premier. I am thinking about switching and wonder if anyone uses any other programs. My taxes will be a little complicated this year as I sold two houses (my main residence and a vacation home) and bought a new main residence. In addition I bought & sold several stocks.
Thanks for any advice you might give,

Chris Padilla
01-05-2017, 5:24 PM
Yeah, they seem to be doing that but I still like 'em and will stick with them for the time being.

George Bokros
01-05-2017, 5:47 PM
I use H&R Block Software. It also will transfer last years data to the new software.

Wade Lippman
01-05-2017, 6:39 PM
I've used H&R Block for 12 years. It works fine and I am reasonably sure it will import from old TurboTax files. TurboTax is usually reviewed as being better, but I am used to H&R Block. I just don't know why they abandoned the name "Taxcut". I have sold houses and stocks on the Deluxe program.

Lee Schierer
01-05-2017, 6:47 PM
We've used turbo tax for years. What I have noted is that if you get the email from Intuit for the new version that you can save money for the exact same version from Amazon and other sources for less money. We buy from other sources rather than directly from Intuit. Our PA tax return is so simple that we don't use turbo tax to do it.

Bruce Page
01-05-2017, 6:48 PM
Ima long time TT user. I don't see a strong enough reason to change. I just picked it up from Costco the other day.

Larry Frank
01-05-2017, 7:31 PM
I normally do my taxes with the HR Block program and it is similar to TT. This year I am having a professional CPA do them as there are some complicating matters and I do not want any chance of an IRS problem.

John K Jordan
01-05-2017, 7:43 PM
Thanks for any advice you might give,

I've used several programs over the years and followed all the details they provided.

The program I use now I call the accountant since that's what he is. His fee is surprisingly reasonable even when the returns got complicated.

The first year he wanted to see my last few returns. He refiled some things and the IRS sent me a check for around $10,000. I decided to not do my taxes with a program any more.

JKJ

Clint Baxter
01-05-2017, 8:57 PM
I've used several programs over the years and followed all the details they provided.

The program I use now I call the accountant since that's what he is. His fee is surprisingly reasonable even when the returns got complicated.

The first year he wanted to see my last few returns. He refiled some things and the IRS sent me a check for around $10,000. I decided to not do my taxes with a program any more.

JKJ

I do taxes professionally, running a tax center for a military base. We do returns for active duty personnel, retirees, and military dependents, all for free. It's amazing how many times we look at returns that individuals have done theirselves, using one of the tax programs out there, and find large errors in the return. The majority of the erroneous returns have had the taxpayer paying too much tax, but have seen a sizable number where they ended up owing additional taxes as well.

Self-preparation is not the only way to get an errant return, as we've encountered many errors on returns from commercial tax services as well. I've even seen a few prepared by accountants with errors as well.

Unfortunately, our tax laws have become so complex that most individuals are liable to have errors if they have any type of complex return. Best you can do is get your return prepared by the most knowledgable individual available. And that doesn't necessarily mean you have to pay someone else for that service. The tax software packages out there can do your returns correctly as long as you're able to understand the interview questions, and you provide the correct answers. If you have a more complicated return, you might be better off with an accountant as JKJ indicated above.

Happy Tax Time. :)

Howard Garner
01-05-2017, 9:08 PM
I have been using Turbo Tax for many years. I like the fact that it will automatically transfer my info from the past year to the current year. However each year it seems they try to squeeze a little more out of me. It looks like they will now be charging for the state tax program with Turbo Tax Premier. ,

One state is included in every version of Turbo Tax except Basic.
(from the back of this years box)
Howard Garner

Ken Platt
01-05-2017, 9:34 PM
I had used turbotax for many years, and in recent years Vanguard gave a significant discount to it's fundholders. Last year they stopped doing that and when I looked at prices, H & R Block's software seemed much more reasonable. I like doing my own because I feel it gives me a feel for the process and my own financial status. Similar reasons as doing my own plumbing, electrical, etc, although I recognize in all those cases a pro might do it a bit better, and definitely faster.

Brian Tymchak
01-06-2017, 12:05 PM
I switched from Turbo Tax to HR Block due to price hikes, TT quality slips, and the TT hack (to a lessor degree). I was finding more and more places in the TT program that I needed to resort to the underlying forms to understand how to answer some of the questions for my situation. The HR program does not support our regional tax authority (RITA) forms though, as TT did.

Jerry Bruette
01-06-2017, 12:33 PM
I used TT for about 5 years and found it nerve racking entering the information and double checking my fat fingered typing. Used to take about three hours.

Went to an accountant last year because of a complicated stock transaction that I didn't want to handle. I feel his service and advice is well worth the cost, plus I get 3 hours of my life back and I can do something enjoyable with it.

Jim Becker
01-06-2017, 7:41 PM
I've used TurboTax for about as long as it's been available. (Same for Quicken)

Wade Lippman
01-06-2017, 7:57 PM
I normally do my taxes with the HR Block program and it is similar to TT. This year I am having a professional CPA do them as there are some complicating matters and I do not want any chance of an IRS problem.

I did that a few years back. I hired a CPA both for the complicated year and the one before because I wanted to be sure everything was done right. The following year I found he had royally screwed up and had to sue him for malpractice.
You will probably have better luck.

Howard Garner
01-06-2017, 9:08 PM
I quit using a "professional" back in the 70's when he messed up and did not claim 2nd job expenses correctly.
I have done the manually and with computer help. Several different programs over the years.
For the last few years it has been Turbo Tax.

Howard Garner

Matt Day
01-06-2017, 10:03 PM
My wife and I (before and after we were married) used TT and it worked okay. Never got much of a refund though. She had to pay like a lot a couple years when she was finishing up medical training. Shortly after having kids we gave up doing it ourselves and we had a more complicated return with owning a home, having kids, job changes, donations, investments, the whole bit. The first year we had a private tax professional do it we got a much bigger return (10 fold). Well worth the small cost.

Wade Lippman
01-06-2017, 10:53 PM
My wife and I (before and after we were married) used TT and it worked okay. Never got much of a refund though. She had to pay like a lot a couple years when she was finishing up medical training. Shortly after having kids we gave up doing it ourselves and we had a more complicated return with owning a home, having kids, job changes, donations, investments, the whole bit. The first year we had a private tax professional do it we got a much bigger return (10 fold). Well worth the small cost.

What did he do that they tax software didn't? Unless one of you made an error the results should be the same.

Matt Day
01-07-2017, 7:20 AM
That's what I thought, but I'm guessing the human knows more about the ins and outs of the codes and how to customize the return for us. Someone mentioned before that TT is conservative with the numbers, likely to cover their you know what.

We're actually going to switch CPA's this year to work with someone how specializes in physicians (my wife). Hoping for more of an advisory role where they can tell us more about donations for instance, and how much we should be donating and how that would work with write offs and returns, for example.

Jim Becker
01-07-2017, 9:17 AM
What did he do that they tax software didn't? Unless one of you made an error the results should be the same.
Exactly. There are certainly some circumstances where certain tax code nuances might be handled better by a tax accountant, but the software has gotten pretty comprehensive over the years. Additionally, sometimes "normal folks" don't realize that something is tax affecting and don't account for it with their inputs. I have friends who are tax accountants and I even worked for one of the during a couple of tax seasons years ago. They all use software...including TurboTax or TurboTax-like commercial products. :) Almost nobody does the returns manually...they'd earn no money due to the extra time required to do it manually.

Jerome Stanek
01-07-2017, 9:35 AM
I use 3 different tax software and Turbo Tax is not the one I end up with. H&R block hired my daughter as a tax person and she got 2 hrs training and was told she now is certified to do other peoples taxes. My son now is a CPA so he checks ours over and told us tax act did it fine. You have to watch how each rounds up the change as I had some entries that had something like .05 cents and one rounded it up and another rounded it down that doesn't seem like much but with around 20 entries it put us in the next higher tax bracket that was a lot more then the refund we should have gotten.

Ken Combs
01-07-2017, 9:55 AM
I switched from Turbo Tax to HR Block due to price hikes, TT quality slips, and the TT hack (to a lessor degree). I was finding more and more places in the TT program that I needed to resort to the underlying forms to understand how to answer some of the questions for my situation. The HR program does not support our regional tax authority (RITA) forms though, as TT did.
I was going to type a response, but just decided to quote yours. Me too!