Review by Hap

I agree with Gil Hanoch’s review and the points he made about making improvements especially his #4. When you want to revisit a section some of them make you walk through many pages to get to where you want but I still give it 4 stars because it’s not that big a deal and you can just jump directly to the form. I would maybe give it FIVE stars if it could handle a NOL (Net Operating Loss) or at least point us to the IRS Forms we need to fill out manually but it’s almost impossible for it to actually do it completely on the first year you have a NOL because you have to carry it back two years and then file amended returns for those years and then use what’s left and carry it forward. But it could at least explain that in the program. My CPA friend wanted 300.00 just to do that one Form 1045 and he wanted 1500.00 do do my return so it’s all relative and a matter of what you are capable of and what you are willing to tackle.

I did my Federal return this year in about two hours and it was complicated but it took another hour to do the state because, for the state it was the first year I could apply the NOL to it and I had to fill out a state form outside the program and you have to know where to apply those numbers by reading that forms instructions but I don’t know if they are even mentioned in the interview because I skipped a lot of it and had to figure out for myself what the state (of California) was asking for. It’s so far of it you leave out one step that you know you did it wrong as it adds rather than subtracts the numbers throwing it off by a HUGE number.

Be aware that Sch C has not changed but the screen used to enter the expenses has changed a lot from what it was in 2013 Deluxe version.

One thing that pushed it up to 4 stars from maybe 3.5 is that the support is much faster this year, or at lest it is this early in the year.

Now that I’m done early I know about what I owe long before I owe it but still have 4 month to file and refine the numbers as my 1099 Interest forms come in and after I can download (import) numbers from my financial institutions which cant be done till late January