The Bottom Line
Pros
- Can navigate return outside of tax interview constraints (advanced users)
- More competitively priced this year; good value for price
- TurboTax for Windows and Mac includes 5 free federal e-files
- TurboTax Online includes 1 free federal e-file
- Download W-2 and 1099 data directly from over 100,000 employers and financial institutions
Cons
- Where to find help resources in TurboTax could be more obvious
- No human audit support included; sold separately
Description
- The TurboTax 2008 for Mac versions are Basic, Deluxe, Premier, and Home & Business.
- TurboTax is very easy to navigate and the online support site returns usable answers to searches for help.
- TurboTax Basic Online and TurboTax Free Edition (online) include downloadable Audit Support Center.
- TurboTax Live Community help resource is integrated with TurboTax.
- TurboTax Free Edition (online) includes a free federal e-file.
- TurboTax works with ItsDeductible charitable contribution tax deduction software.
Guide Review - TurboTax Tax Software Review
TurboTax gives the option of completing selected tax return topics or using the full tax interview. Skipping around a tax return is useful if you are very familiar with filling out a tax return and you want to enter tax data as documents come in.TurboTax Help is hidden under the Tools button to reduce on-screen clutter, but this may not be obvious to new TurboTax users. Clicking on Tools presents well-organized resources for TurboTax help and income tax help. Live Community is back with questions and answers that are relevant to the part of the tax return being worked on. A link to Ask A Tax Pro just below provides access to professional tax advice (price and details).
TurboTax Online will automatically log you out after several minutes of inactivity for security purposes, but the TurboTax screen being worked on stays open. It would be more secure if the screen being worked on changed to an auto-log out notification. Create a free user ID right away when you start TurboTax Online to avoid losing data from auto-log outs or interrupted Internet connections.
While TurboTax imports W-2 data from many employers, you actually need to have the physical W-2 forms because the download requires entry of some W-2 information. Data input errors are avoided by downloading W-2 information, but does not save much time unless you have multiple W-2's.
TurboTax comes with an Audit Support Center to help with responding to an IRS audit, which is often sufficient enough. Audit support insurance with help from a tax professional runs an additional $40. TurboTax Pro Review is also $40.
- See TurboTax Features, Versions and Prices for more information.
- TurboTax Review from About.com Tax Planning
- Top Canadian Tax Software