Turbo Tax? Good or Bad? - San Pablo,CA

IMO, if you have straightforward taxes, you will be fine to use Turbo Tax and/or your state's online e-filing options. If you have complicated taxes, you may still be better off hiring someone to do them. I used Turbo Tax when I was a single woman with no dependents, and one W2 to worry about.

my husband has done our taxes with turbo tax for the last....what? ten years, i think?
it's great. i mean, it takes him a few hours, a lot of focus and some profanity. but then it's done, and it saves us hundreds.
i absolutely say give it a shot.
of course, this is coming from the one who doesn't have to sit down and do it.
:) khairete
S.

I've been doing mine with TurboTax for years. We did use an accountant for a short period where my husband was self-employed and we had complex deductions from that business, a house we temporarily were landlords for, some stock transactions etc. but once he was back on a regular W-2, I went back to TT.

I used it all the time when I was single and never had a problem. The website is very easy to follow and will save your info for the next year (once you create a log on). Since I have been with my husband we have an accountant do our taxes, its just easier for us.

My husband had an accounting degree and he used Turbo Tax for us many years.

Does your husband have any kind of training for this? It was easy for my husband because of his degree. Just follow ALL directions carefully.

When we started our company, things weren't as simple so our CPA has handled everything since.

We never had any issues with Turbo Tax but the peace of mind you get from having a good CPA by your side in case of an audit or something is worth the $$ to me.

Never go to a place like HR Block, etc. Only go to a true CPA who is fully trained and licensed. We do pay more because HE does everything. There is no receptionist, his wife is also a CPA and they work together. He does our business and personal taxes and he's worth every penny.

We don't have simple returns so it's vital to have good legal and tax counsel on our team.

If your taxes are very simple (each of you has a regular job without any unusual benefits, and standard deductions like a mortgage, local taxes), then Turbo Tax is the way to go.

I used to do ours that way, but my DH gets some out of the ordinary benefits that need to be counted as income. TT always put it as a deduction for some reason. I would find it and correct manually. Except 1 year after I fixed it, TT put it back. I didn't catch it until the NEXT year, and realized that I owed a whole bunch of additional taxes plus penalties on that amount, had to file a revised return, etc. What a PITA.

Then I went to one of those places where you can walk in and get your taxes done without an appointment. I learned that they hire lots of seasonal people who are not accountants. They basically have their own version of TT on their computers. They also messed up the form - they did the childcare deduction incorrectly. Fortunately I caught it before filing. No lie - when I went in and explained what they did wrong, the manager offered me a job on the spot. Which is scary considering I have NO accounting background.

Now we use a real tax accountant. He always gets it right.

We have used it for the last few years. Very simple to use. Never any problems.

I've been using it for years. Really simple to follow in the instructions and plug in the numbers. Once you try it you'll kick yourself for having paid a professional. And seriously if you get them done at any of the tax places they aren't being done by a professional anyway. Its just someone who paid $600 for a training class to be 'certified' by jackson hewit or hr black. They don't have to have any accounting background or education beyond the training they've paid for to take a course.

we have used it for almost 20 years. No problems.

It's been good for us, but we don't have super complicated taxes.

Hi M.,

This is a complex question and is best answered with much more information and details than you've provided. And I understand not wanting to disclose too much financial information in this forum.

It really depends on the filing. Do you itemize? Do you turn in schedules? How complex is your investment portfolio?? My husband can do long division in his head and still agrees that our financial situation warrants every penny we spend having our accounting firm handle and efile our taxes.

If you're concerned about the expense, perhaps the person who prepares them can give you an estimate this year and may even be willing to work with you on the cost to keep you as a client. He/She has to pay their taxes too after all. :-)

Specifically, I've never used turbo tax and I'm not sure I would trust that it would maximize my return the way my accountant has over the years. Have fun and tell us how things worked out! :-) S.

I've been doing my taxes on Turbo for 10 years. I kept going to different places, like H&R Block, and they kept charging me more and more each time I would go, each form etc. Now, I don't have to pay anything, I don't do the deluxe package, because the free edition does it all. One year I did do the deluxe but I didn't get back anything more by doing it, so I don't anymore. I think it's worth it!

The biggest thing that can mess you up with Turbo Tax is if you have a high deductible insurance plan and an HSA. For some reason it does not connect this dots. Actually it may have connected them this year, I am not sure because I never use the prompts. With an HSA you have to check the box saying you have high deductible insurance, that you were under the statutory limits, and confirm what you spent and that it was for medical expenses. If you don't do that you pay taxes on that money which is a lot of money.

I find it to be the best product to fill out my forms. I am an accountant but I don't practice tax so I do not have access to the accounting software this works just fine.

Oh the HSA thing, one of my coworkers had a CPA, her CPA actually missed the HSA checks and she ended up having to amend 5 years of taxes using my old Turbo Tax CDs. She got more than 10k back correcting that error.

I am a certified tax preparer and I use Turbo Tax. I don't care much for the formatting and all the questions, but that is because I already know what I do and don't need to answer. It is really built for the "everyday person with everyday tax issues." If you are worried you are going to do it wrong, why don't you do your 2014 taxes on it first and see if you come up with the same refund as your tax preparer did? It only charges you if you actually file and while you cannot see the actual tax forms, you CAN see your refund (or amount owed). If you get the same answer (or get a larger refund because they missed something), then perhaps you will feel comfortable using Turbo Tax on your own.

As far as H & R Block goes, by and large they are just fine to use in my opinion. Just ask for someone that has 10 years + with H & R Block (usually called Senior Preparers) if you feel more comfortable. CPAs and accountants do not always do a better job - our fancy, high priced CPA made mistakes two years running (after 8 years of no mistakes) before I left. Oftentimes CPAs and accountants use seasonal/barely trained help during busy season so you might meet with the CPA and pay CPA fees but actually the receptionist is doing the returns. At least H & R Block makes you take classes before you can be hired!

I love TurboTax. I like the plain language that it uses, and the simple explanations. We have complicated taxes (we are renting out a house we own that we can't sell, and we have medical expenses that are crazy, and we've moved) but TurboTax has made it quite simple. Plus they store our previous years' forms.

I purchase the premier edition, and we purchase the audit insurance at the end.

What I really like is that I don't have to lug everything to an office and sit there and do it all at once. And my husband and I can log on separately and add what we know. For example, I'll tell him "I'm at the point where it's asking for unreimbursed job expenses" and I certainly don't know every single travel expense he's had, or things he's had to purchase that were required like a subscription to some professional journal that is mandatory, so he just logs on when he gets the chance and fills out that part. Then I can just spend an hour or so, whatever time I have, and pick up where I left off. Sometimes we sit together and one of us types in numbers and one of us looks up things. A glass of wine, some fruit and cheese, and it's actually almost painless. Almost.

We've used them since 2007 without a bad experience.

My sister and a few friends use TurboTax and have not had anything bad to say about it. my sister's return is very simple. A friend that uses it has kids and mortgage, along with education expenses. Another person I know with his own business, property and other complex things going on uses an accountant just because it is more complex. I personally use HR Block online service. It asks all the questions and tells me if anything comes up that might be a problem. Plus they guarantee in case of audit. This year I was able to file free and it asked the same questions based on other answers.

My taxes are simple. I use turbo tax. Actually my husband went to h&r block last year and there was a complication so he didn't finish, I was already done with mine at that point, I just told him just let me do it on turbo tax, well I got more back than what h&r was gonna give him! I'm not the sharpest knife in the drawer I thought the questions were easy. Like I said in the beginning our taxes were very basic.

I've used TurboTax since 2007. I use the Premier version because I have rental property, so my taxes are a little more complex than most. Overall I've been happy with it. You do need to check it over - I very nearly double-deducted an expense once by mistake and wouldn't have caught it without checking. I have a feeling whatever extra deductions an accountant might dig out would be eaten up by the fees they charge, so I'm OK sticking with Turbotax.