Review by AverageGuyShopper

I did test out the free phone support offered with this version. I called ⁴⁄₁₄, and was told the wait would be >1.5 hours. So much for priority phone support, I thought. But, the automated menu gives you the option to leave a number for a call back later. I left my number, and YES, I got a call back 1:18 later from a real nice guy. I don’t know if he was a CPA, or just trained in tax prep, but he was reasonably knowledgeable. My original question veered off to include a couple more topics by the time I was done. He was very polite throughout, never seemed rushed, and was genuinely happy to help. So that was a good experience in the end. I hope that TT can hire more phone support people in the future so that wait times can be less than an hour at peak season.

The TT inputting seems to work pretty much the same as in past years. If anything, there seems to be less annoying pop up ads to get users to purchase additional services than I remember. I only use the investments (schedule D, K-1’s - I know I should get rid of those) and not the rentals aspect. I did feel somewhat forced to get the investment version even though I knew that Deluxe users could upgrade for free since I didn’t want the risk of encountering a glitchy upgrade just before taxes are due. However, just when I wanted to e-file my return, TT would not get past an error that I had to manually correct. It just kept going around in circles. So, I had to mail my return in, which was a waste of paper, time, & stamps for something that is usually easy and free. Also, small bugs were in the program (like leaving in forms that were marked for deletion).

So I’m giving 5 stars for the phone, but the end frustration of not being able to e-file and the other small bugs was too large to ignore.