Review by Robert I. Hedges

I have been using TurboTax products (generally Deluxe, sometimes Premier) for over a decade and like many have been astounded by Intuits gross misjudgments of customer’s needs in an attempt to make customers jump to a higher priced version this year. This was so ill-received that I got an email from Intuit’s General manager Sasan Goodarzi telling me it’s all been a big mistake and that I can get $25 back because I bought Premier instead of Deluxe. Too little and too late. I will likely try another program next year I am so fed up with the upselling.

As for the Premier program itself, it actually runs fairly smoothly this year with relatively few glitches. It did make an error involving excess employer contributions in an HSA that was extremely complicated to fix, but other than that it was hassle free. (The actual error, I believe, was related to the order and manner the step by step interview asked the questions in; once the raw data was changed the resulting form 8889 and calculations appeared correct.) Being as emotionally detached as possible, I am awarding TurboTax Premier three stars as it can produce a decent return (just proofread carefully) but I now overtly want to switch from Intuit products given the widespread bad judgment involved with this year’s release of TurboTax. Only time will tell if I’ll be back.