Review by M Cox

Now how can a review get a dozen thumbs down in less than a day and then suddenly stop? I believe I was targeted. Seems very suspicious to me. Anyway, my review follows.

Schedule C is missing from this year’s Deluxe version. I had to purchase the expensive Home and Business version currently priced a penny less than $80 to get it. It was included last year. Not happy about that - minus one star. There is a $25 refund available, but it is conditional and only applies if you bought the Deluxe version last year. Since I bought the standard version last year, I am not eligible for this new price gouging version. Minus another star. They sent an apology email to me, but that didn’t sway me in the least - just made me more angry, especially when they wouldn’t give me the $25 refund because of the version of TurboTax I bought last year. I should take off another star, but it does function. So that is where I’ll leave it for now. Their apology is conditional. They aren’t really sorry about anything in my opinion.

I can’t envision using any other tax preparation product this year. Next year I won’t buy it if they continue this new tactic. But I think they aren’t backing down in spite of all the negative publicity. I strongly recommend Turbo Tax, but it depends on what price you have to pay. I’ve paid for it every year for the past 20 years or so. I plan to switch to H&B Block next year. I hate price gouging by splitting up an existing product and selling a tiered product line.

Otherwise, Turbo Tax takes most of the pain out of filing and paying taxes. It has a question and answer step-by-step style and is generally very easy to follow and understand. You can also manually fill out forms at random and skip through some areas. It imports key data from the previous year’s taxes and automatically inserts routine entries such as names and addresses. Of course you can modify or delete those entries.

It is very thorough and complete and has a rigorous check for omissions and problems before you officially file the tax return. On some previous annual versions, this check has been annoying because it thought there were some omissions when there weren’t any. I had to create an alternative entry just to satisfy the software. In previous years, and probably this year as well, I will have to make fake entries simply to satisfy the software because somebody at TurboTax is completely misinformed (or probably way out of date) about the real estate procurement procedure to buy property in China. They seem to believe an individual cannot purchase property unless they go through some government approved agency. Not true. Starting in 2006, I’ve purchased and sold more than one property directly. I know this doesn’t apply to most people but it affects me. If they cover it in the software, at least it should be up to date.