Review by Robert I. Hedges

I am a long time TurboTax user, and Premier this year shows progress from previous years in most areas. Importing W-2 and some investment data is a breeze, although several mutual fund entries had to be made manually. I found that switching between the interview and forms was less than optimum this year: the forms menu was touchy and hard to navigate accurately, and annoyingly, was not complete.

One huge oversight is that form 1040-V, which anyone who owes tax needs (although you can technically file without it), is apparently missing in action. It did not print with my return, and when I went to forms it is not even in the list, making a trip to the IRS web site necessary to manually find, print, and fill out the form. Strangely, the corresponding form for my state taxes did print with my return and was accurate. TurboTax also had an issue with my state taxes when it wouldn’t accept an entry I made (correctly) from a 1099-R. It insisted a certain number (a state tax ID number) had to be seven digits long, yet the number (which the payer, Fidelity Investments, confirmed) was nine digits long on the 1099-R. TurboTax would not allow me to overwrite the field, and I had to write a cover letter to file along with my state taxes (which necessitated paper filing). The program also lacks a decent search function. I had a complex issue involving a payment taken as stock which I had to research completely on my own (the J. K. Lasser book is still a great tool to have on hand). I also find that for both the 2006 and 2007 tax years TurboTax is inflexible about keeping your files in anything but PDF format, which I consider to be a major inconvenience.

Overall I still find TurboTax the best self-preparation tool on the market, but it is not without its frustrations. I recommend the program, but caution that if you have complex returns, TurboTax is not a perfect tool and has some subtle flaws that pester the user.