Tax Software

[laurat99]

Anyone have any good tax software to recommend or not? Our Air Force base volunteer tax service isn't happening this year, so I'm forced to do them myself. The last time I did DIY taxes, I saved my info on a floppy (A drive, not B). We are pretty simple in our finances, own a house and have deductions, so we don't need a tax pro or service.

[Persnickety Polecat]

(02-16-2012 08:36 AM)laurat99 Wrote:  Anyone have any good tax software to recommend or not? Our Air Force base volunteer tax service isn't happening this year, so I'm forced to do them myself. The last time I did DIY taxes, I saved my info on a floppy (A drive, not B). We are pretty simple in our finances, own a house and have deductions, so we don't need a tax pro or service.

If your taxes are very simple and your income is below a certain amount, you may be able to use H&R Block's free online service. Otherwise, you can also purchase their software packages, which range from $20 to $50. It's very easy to use -- I'm self-employed, and all I have to do is plug in my numbers. It does everything else for me. And my taxes can be complicated -- not only am I self-employed, we have to pay taxes to two separate states. lol. So, yeah, I don't even want to do it myself at this point.

[Presbygirl]

Turbo Tax should work well for you. I think it's about $40 and you can purchase it at Staples, Office Depot etc..

http://www.turbotax.com/lp/ty11/ppc/hp.j...gg&srqs=1&

[exOBCstudent]

I use TaxAct Free online service. Well, it's free to use but if you want to save your data from previous years it's a small fee. Used it for the last several years and it's been easy to use.

[dthatcher]

TurboTax Online... no software to download or install. I have used them for a decade and it works great.
The FREE product (whether TurboTax Online or elsewhere) is very "fill in the form".... I prefer to pony up and pay for the lowest price package. This way, TurboTax Online will do a lot more hand holding and checking, and this way they will also save a copy of your returns under your account.

[Derek]

I have used HR Block's online taxes to great effect the past few years.

[redbeardiam]

Switched from turbotax to taxact last year. I'm very happy with TaxAct. I payed $10 this year to import my information from last year. I usually have something slightly different - self-employment income, housing allowance... and TaxAct handles everything very easily.

[JoeR]

I would probably throw my computer if I had to use a consumer tax prep software. It's supposed to be user-friendly, but I'll take my CPA grade software over any of the others. I prepared my mom's return a couple years ago with one of those, and missed one or two things, because the Q&A format of the software didn't ask, and that made some things easy to forget.

Whatever you use, don't rely too heavily on the software. If you don't what the answer should be, you won't know if the software's answer is correct or not. I have had clients screw things up using TurboTax in prior years. I am not telling you to consult a professional, especially when you have a simple return, but be careful using the software.