Review by BillH

I’ve used TurboTax for about the past 15 years to prepare my relatively simple federal and state returns. It makes interpreting the changing and confusing tax forms, rules and instructions fairly easy to do. While very helpful in deciding which numbers go where – and this becomes easier and more automatic each year – the biggest help for me is that there are no longer math errors in my forms. I had to recheck each form at least twice when still doing the taxes on paper. This is a big time saver.nYou still have to keep good records, save receipts for reporting sales taxes from online purchases (yes, you do, even though many folks don’t), keep donation receipts and a computer file (TurboTax does this for you) or paper file of previous tax years. If you get audited, you will need the paper trail.nTurboTax offers a number of extra-cost services along the way as you work through the program; it’s up to the user to decide if they are worth the extra money.nMany state now offer free on-line state tax filing. E-filing state taxes online costs extra from TurboTax. Generally, you just have to enter numbers manually on a free state web site. All the information is provided by the TurboTax printed forms, so you just copy the numbers requested. This has worked well for me for several years.nEach year, TurboTax improves the program and makes it easier and more accessible. I’m very satisfied with the results and will use the program next year.nThe download version from Amazon will save you a couple of bucks; you don’t really need the CD version.