Rating: 
Summary: Does it handle wash sales?
Review: A wash sale is a sale at a loss where the asset is purchased within 30 days before or after the sale. Without making adjustments for this, capital gains reporting is inaccurate. The proliferation of online and short term trading has made this issue important to a larger number of people. Turbotax has never dealt with this in prior versions....Neither has companion product Quicken. Searching the intuit knowledgebase indicates they ignore the issue hoping customers will too. Since the product hasn't been released, there's no way to know if they have rectified this, but if they do they would probably point this out in feature lists. I doubt it will, since Intuit appears to be moving from being highly responsive to customer needs in the beginning to avoiding customer questions any way they can...Try calling technical support for Quicken or Turbotax if you doubt this.
Also, this product gets cheaper and better [due to bugfix updates] as April 15th approaches...but it never gets 'perfect' or close to it...so if you don't understand taxes, at least have someone that does look at your return.
Rating: 
Summary: Buggy
Review: After filling out everything, when I try to e-file, it pops up a dialog box saying "We're sorry.The software you have used for preparing the Tax return is not properly installed...Please re-install the software".
On spending hours with customer service(avg wait = 44 mins), they asked me to delete some files which were not installed by TurboTax at all!
Moreover, they even insisted that I install the software in Safe Mode! I'm going to return my copy to Costco.
Rating: 
Summary: Solid Software, but not very helpful
Review: Considering how buggy most commercial software is, this is pretty solid stuff. It was difficult to make it do anything stupid.
Unfortunately, it was also difficult to make it do much anything smart. You really have to know what your tax return should look like before you start. For example, one of the questions it asked me was "Do you need to file a Schedule C?" I have no idea! It should have asked me questions about my home business, and then told me if I needed a Schedule C or not. The very first dialog it comes up with is "Sole Proprieter or 1099/W2?" Well, if you are doing your own taxes, it's "Sole Proprieter." If you need to send W2's to people who work for you, it's the other one. But, since most of us received 1099's and W2's in the mail, that's not at all obvious. Plus, I tried three times to file electronically, and each time it told me it was done, but I knew it wasn't because my modem had never connected. On the third time, my modem connected, and then it told me it was done for sure. Kind of strange. Needs to be more helpful.
Rating:
Summary: Spyware
Review: Easy to use (at least as far as the IRS will allow taxes to be easy), well done overall.
However, anti-piracy components definetly put it in the class of spyware. Not sure if I can trust my confidential tax info to them anymore, as they did not ask permission to install unwanted components, yet they have to be there for the software to work.
Rating:
Summary: Spyware
Review: Good grief, this is the easiest software to perform tax preparation! This year, TY2002, is my first year to itemize. I will update my feedback for this program when I have completed this in early January. Intuit, you all have put together a great program for those of us who are no where near the tax efficiency level of a CPA.
Rating: 
Summary: As Usual
Review: Good grief, this is the easiest software to perform tax preparation! This year, TY2002, is my first year to itemize. I will update my feedback for this program when I have completed this in early January. Intuit, you all have put together a great program for those of us who are no where near the tax efficiency level of a CPA.
Rating:
Summary: Pretty good, with some calculation and interface errors
Review: Having used the web version of Turbo tax last year, I used it again this year. I was dismayed to find a couple of errors in their program, which made me wonder if there are more. The cover sheet incorrectly calculates the "Effective Tax Rate". Additionally, when filing IL state taxes, the system insisted that I would be filing late and that I would have to pay a penalty for that (even though it is mid-March as I write). Other than that it seemed to work well. Unfortunately those couple of errors did leave me with a niggling doubt regarding the rest of the calculations...
Rating:
Summary: Easy-to-use and it pays for itself!!!!
Review: How many things can you buy that pay for themselves? Not many. TurboTax will do just that. It streamlines the taxing situation of paying taxes into an easy to use interface. Videos explain what you may not understand. It is a step-by-step walk through completing all forms that you'll need to file. Plus, it can do an online update to keep the tax laws up to date. Then, you can file your taxes online, as well. You can usually manage to get everything accomplished inside of a few hours, including filing your state taxes (since one state package can be added for free). Over the last few years, TurboTax has saved me literally thousands of dollars because it knows what I don't about paying taxes. It is well worth the investment.
Rating:
Summary: cannot calculate
Review: I bought this product expecting it to make my life easier. However, it was very frustrating and I ended up doing it all by hand as usual. It refused to calculate my wages correctly. Once we entered the information from our W-2 forms, it add to the amount! Also, it computed all our capital gains as zero! This thing was a complete waste of my time and money.
Rating:
Summary: Just plain awful...
Review: I do not normally review products, but I feel that I must prevent anyone else from making the mistake of purchasing this package. Sure, it's a slick piece of work, with lots of entertaining videos and cool graphics. The problem is that it leaves it up to the user to make the same computations and pore over the same IRS publications that we buy tax software (and hire tax professionals) to help us avoid. Here's my story: After spending hours entering names, addresses, phone numbers, tax ID numbers for employers, dates of birth and SSNs for the kids, and earnings from the W-2's, I come to fun part -- the itemized deductions. Want to guess what Turbotax told me? It said that I would need to obtain IRS Publication 525 (it's approximately 40 pages long, and not included on the CD-ROM), complete the worksheet in that publication (??!!!), then enter the result in the box Turbotax provides. WHAT ON EARTH DO YOU MEAN, GET THE PUBLICATION AND DO THE WORKSHEET??!! Why would I buy software if I wanted to wrangle with IRS publications, do the math myself, and make the same judgment calls on my own that tax programs are supposed to help you make? Such a bad, bad, BAD program. I'm sure my accountant will be snickering as he completes my request for an automatic extension next week. Here's the "bottom line" -- if your taxes are at all complex, do not buy this program. As for me, I'm going to see if Turbotax is any more truthful with its "satisfaction guarantee" than it was with its statements regarding the program's completeness.
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