Rating: Summary: Unstable, buggy software Review: TurboTax has stability problems on Windows 2000. The Error Check kept giving me spurious errors. I had to delete and re-enter two of my stock option sales -- I saved copies of the return with the supposed errors and the new copy: both were identical. When I completed my Federal and State returns and tried to print I got a system crash. I uninstalled and then re-installed both TurboTax and TurboTax State but the print problem persisted. After hours of tinkering I finally hit upon a workaround with a friend: set the default printer to an Apple LaserWriter but print to FILE, e.g. C:\tax.PS and now print. The file tax.PS can now be opened and printed with Ghostscript. However, when I did this the first time I lost my State return. Back to uninstalling and reinstalling TurboTax Deluxe and TurboTax State, re-booting and going through the print process once more.Another problem that I had was the ambiguity in the wording of the Employee Stock Purchase entries. Despite having traded many times I found the TurboTax wording to be somewhat confusing and I spent a lot of time pondering the figures, especially with regard to Disqualifying Disposition Gains and income reported in Box 1 of my W-2. Clearer examples might help. I will not be buying TurboTax next year. Even with stock trades, stock options, and so on, my taxes are not that complex and I would be quicker doing them by hand. It seems to me the TurboTax has a winning product, but now Intuit is sitting back on its corporate laurels in failing to ensure that its product works on the operating systems that it claims to, such as Windows 2000. As a software developer, I know what a pain it is to port products across platforms, but you've got to do what you've got to do to get the product right. TurboTax has failed in this respect. We'll see if they give me my money back. "Satisfaction Guaranteed" indeed.
Rating: Summary: The Number 1 Tax Preparing Software Review: TurboTax is a premium product to prepare your taxes. It is very helpful and easy to use. The inbulit help and the links to various government websites are very helpful. The support provided by the company is also very good. No product in the competion is worth. The cost is worth the product. The easiest way to prepare your taxes. I would recommend this software as it is trust worthy. The best feature in this product is the Easy Step interview which will guide you through your entire tax return till the time you submit it online. Before filing it will also provide error check and final review for yor return. By this you are never at fault. So, go ahead and buy this product for a easy and tension free Tax return. A must for every Tax Prepare. TurboTax the Number 1 Tax software Leader.
Rating: Summary: Needs work Review: Turbotax is fine for simple returns. If you do a moderate amound of stock trading, however, prepare for major headaches. I make a few hundred trades a year and record them in Quicken. Turbotax ALWAYS screws up the data on several trades when transferring the data from Quicken. This happens every year. I then have to go through all the trades and correct the mistakes. Extremely time consuming. That's bad enough, but why, oh why, can't they make the program flag wash sales automatically? Is that too much to ask? The program makes you go through ALL your sales, one by one, and manually mark whether it's a wash sale. Of course, this involves tedious cross checking of your records and consumes hours of time. LAME. The program should check all sales losses to see if the security has been bought within a month after the sale, then give the user the option to automatically flag them or not. This simple feature, if offered, would save so much time. I don't understand why they don't GET IT. Two simple features: accurate data and wash sales...
Rating: Summary: Don't Use with Windows XP Review: Well, go ahead. Once you get past the two or three installation crashes, spend 15 minutes deleting AOL icons even though you checked the do not install AOL checkbox, spend an hour on line with tech support to find out you shouldn't've taken the option to install anywhere but c:\tax01, and then spend another hour or two with tech support to find out only users with administator privelges can use the application--after all that the application is pretty good at helping you do your taxes.
Rating: Summary: A gift to the American taxpayer Review: When I discovered the TurboTax software 3 years ago, it seemed to me like the answer to a prayer, and a gift to the American taxpayer! The purchase price was very low, compared to professinal tax preparation services a fraction of the cost! Rebates and other incentives are usually offered, and state income tax filing is included. With Intuit's TurboTax Deluxe much of the work of filing your federal and state tax returns is done automatically. If I have any tax questions, help is available either directly from the Tax Library from within the program, and offers tax info, tips, changes of tax law, and links, or online. Data entry is easy, I just fill in the blanks! In my opinion, this program ought to be subtitled, Filing Tax Returns for Dummies...or so. Installation of the program is very easy and straightforward. The software comes with a detailed step-by-step guide.
Rating: Summary: Overseas issues Review: While overseas I used this product to get a good start on US taxes, but it seemed to have problems working through the maze of foreign tax credits and associated forms. Had to resort to manual inputs and overrides, which the program conveniently lets you do...including showing you where you have overridden for final cleanup. Keeping track of multiple foreign bank accounts is also not straightforward unless you blindly follow the tax wizard. This is one place where it is not intuitive what the system is asking you for, but in the end, it seems to all work fine.
Rating: Summary: Great program for do it yourselfers Review: Yes, I admit, I was skeptical at first, but when I bought the Turbo Tax 1999 as well as 2000, it opened my eyes to alot of tax credits that I've been missing over the years. It's so simple to use so I'm definitely getting 2001! I HIGHLY RECOMMEND THIS PROGRAM.
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