TurboTax Premier Federal + State + eFile 2008 [OLD VERSION]

I have recently completed my 2008 taxes using the TurboTax Premier edition. This is actually my 4th consecutive year using one of the various TurboTax editions. I find them pretty easy to use. Just choose the right edition for your needs and you should be in business. Ive never encountered a problem completing my taxes regardless of the oddities I throw at it. I highly recommend the TurboTax products.

This product is exceptional. It helped me save money by allowing me to do the taxes by myself. It gave me a gps to do my taxes. It gave step by step instructions on every page. I LOVE this product and everyone should do their taxes through TurboTax and save money. This software lets you see what is happening in every step of tax filing.

It is Inuits prerogative to change the terms of their license, but if you dont like it, vote with your feet and use a competing product - I am. A several years ago Intuit restricted the number of computers you could install the software on (to just one I think) and people switched to computing products in droves (including me). The next year they gave up on that practice. Personally I would much rather have them limit the number of computers it can be installed on than to you to one free return. I do my taxes and two family members - as a favor. I could do those returns without software, but why should I if I am already buying software for myself. I will not pay Intuit another $20 for those returns - nor $60 just to do my own. I dont care about the free e-filing - actually I think it is a crime that the government couldnt come up with a standard format that tax programs could produce so returns could be filed directly to the IRS site without a 3rd party getting involved (and making a profit). I am sure they could do that for less than it costs them to process paper returns. I used Tax Cut a few years ago and it wasnt quite as polished as TurboTax, but it was fine. From what Ive read, the gap between products has narrowed. I guess I will find out for myself soon enough.

Turbo Tax 2008 was easy to use but I had problems downloading updates and the state files from within the program. A visit to the website support page offered easy to follow instructions on how to manually download the updates. The ability to import last years tax return information and trade information from brokerage are the features I like.

I have used TurboTax Premier for several years. I thaught is was an excelent price for TurboTax Premier 2008 from this seller. I used it to file my taxes and experienced no problems!

I have used Turbo Tax for a number of years and find it easy and accurate to use. I like the way it stores last years information for import to this years tax form

A bit lacking from interface, TT08 is still better than pencil and paper. A test run through a dozen consumers would out problematic features/characteristics.

I just finished my federal/state return on TurboTax and the experience motivates me to seek an alternate supplier for my next years filing. To my surprise, this years edition of TurboTax appears to be harder to use, more cumbersome, less trustworthy than the previous years. - Entries that I had little difficulty filing last year - local income tax (yes, we have that) paid to the local tax collector but not recorded on the W2 - were buried in a maze of difficult to comprehend options hiding behind the cheerful, easy to use interface. - Information, once entered, is sometimes hard to retrieve or readjust. The program creates dozens of worksheets and forms, most of them useless or unneeded and its not easy to get to the source entry for some specific item of information. Its all in there, mind you, but so is the needle hiding in that proverbial haystack. - Attempts to revise or check information force a choice between plunging into the user-friendly and largely redundant branch or the confusing maze of inter-connected forms, schedules and worksheets where its difficult to impossible to anticipate the consequences of adjusting some specific figure to the return overall. - The program seems to be generating its own errors by creating worksheets on its own and then, when error-checking is run, finding that it doesnt have sufficient information to back... nothing. For example, it didnt know how much income did I generate by using my house as a home office, even though I never even HINTED that I did that. - The HELP engine that comes with the program is almost completely useless and its online branches are from inconsistent to frustrating to maddening. For example. I was able to find some online discussions on how to enter my local income tax amount but I had to spend some precious time navigating through the HELP maze. In may case, I found another customers advice but, it turns out, in most cases, you must first crate a UserID on the LiveCommunity. And, of course, for ONLY $29.95 some live adviser would be happily and cheerfully answer any basic question that you may have that the HELP facility should have included to begin with. I am lucky because my tax return is relatively simple but I can see how much more frustrating the experience could be for those whose tax return needs are more sophisticated than mine. Ive been a TurboTax user for more years than I can remember but it is unlikely that I will be using TurboTax next year.

UPDATE: Intuit has tried to correct for this years price-grab (as detailed below in my original post) by reversing themselves and including 5 free e-files and removing restrictions on the number of returns that can be created and printed with a single copy of TurboTax. For that, I am raising my rating to two stars. However, as smart consumers, we should note when they did this and infer what motivated them. During the period while the controversy of their restrictions and extra charges was raging, Intuit and its representatives did nothing but try to justify their position, but this did nothing but inflame their (former) customers more. However, the controversy did catch the attention of Intuit TurboTaxs primary competitor, the Tax Cut product from H&R Block, who then moved to take advantage by first pointing out that they did not raise their price this year (even when including e-file as TurboTax did) and were not restricting the number of returns that could be done with a single copy of TaxCut. Then, more importantly, decided to offer 5 free e-files with the TaxCut product. Only then did Intuit realize that they were not going to sneak this price-grab by consumers, because if the two products were side by side and only one of them (TaxCut) was advertising 5 free e-files and no limits on printing, they were going to lose sales big time. They then reversed their decision and have now matched TaxCuts offer. So what does that mean for us consumers? In one sense, it is a victory, because we are getting what we wanted in the first place: to pay a reasonable price for a product that we can use to meet our familys needs. However, while I applaud Intuits decision to reverse a bad decision, I can also see that it wasnt because they were listening and responding to their customers, but only countering their competition (who was listening to consumers and responded to take advantage). More importantly, H&R Blocks actions with TaxCut demonstrated a certain corporate character: first, they did not try to price-gouge customers this year by raising prices when they included free e-file. Free equals free. Second, they did not try to get extra money for printed returns (software as service) when the customer has already paid for the product. Third, they could have just trumpeted the fact that they do not charge for extra printed returns, but they raised the bar by including more free e-files. This is compared to Intuits corporate character of greed and selfishness, which has been demonstrated this year by price increases, user restrictions, and extra charges. A few years ago, they also showed their true colors by including damaging Digital Restrictions Management (DRM) in TurboTax to prevent it from being installed on more than one computer, preventing legitimate customers from working on their return on a work computer and finishing it on their home computer, and then preventing them from uninstalling it. Then, as with this year, they only listened and gave in when it was already clear they are going to lose. Intuit needs to learn how to balance their profit expectations with respect for their customers and it will take time before they earn our respect back. So for me, I will give credit where it is due and purchase TaxCut instead of TurboTax this year. ORIGINAL REVIEW BELOW: Intuit is trying to pull a fast one on consumers this year by including e-filing at no extra charge. Intuit is promoting that they are including one free e-file with its software for tax year 2008, but has also increased the price of its products by about $15. In previous years, they would charge $15 extra to e-file, but you could send in a rebate to get that $15 back, which made it effectively free. This year, they charge you $15 upfront, whether you use the e-file or not, which means EVERYBODY PAYS MORE. In addition, they have changed their products license from allowing a purchaser of TurboTax to prepare up to five tax returns within the household in the 2007 version to allowing only one tax return (with included e-file) and then charging $9.95 for each additional return prepared, WHETHER THOSE ADDITIONAL RETURNS ARE PRINTED OR E-FILED in the 2008 version. The additional charges for additional e-file submissions would be fair, but not for additional preparations and printed returns. So what this means is that, under the guise of providing free e-file, Intuit will charge up to $54.80 ($15 + 4 * 9.95) MORE to consumers to receive the equivalent of what was provided with the 2007 version. Keep in mind, they are charging even if you prepare and print more than one return without e-filing, which means there is NO COST TO THEM, but they want to charge you for it anyway. This doesnt sound free to me. This will affect many users who prepare one main return, and then a few more simple ones for children or parents, etc. Even if you only do one return, you should avoid this years TurboTax on principle. The core issue is that Intuit is trying to change TurboTax from a tool-based product model to a service-based model. However, they have not changed the pricing to reflect this change. The problem is, they want to continue pricing the product like they did before, when it was a tool that could be used multiple times, yet restrict it like a service where you pay for every use. If you object to the one return policy, Intuit will just say, Use TurboTax Online, its free for simple returns!, but this suggestion is just a distraction in this discussion. What they are saying is like this: Suppose I bought a nice brand-name toolset for full price and used it on one project. Ive now setup all the tools in the box just like I like it and become totally familiar with the tools and how they can be used, so much that I can just reach in the box without looking and find the tool I need and once I get it out I know just how hard to hit with that hammer. I finish the project and close up my toolbox for the day. The next day, my mom wants me to fix something so I get the toolbox but I now find that it is locked and has a security sticker on it saying that Ill have to pay $10 extra to open the toolbox for each additional project. Or, I can pack up my moms item and drive it to the hardware store where they will let me borrow some simple tools to try and fix the item but if it gets too complicated over there, theyll start charging me to rent additional tools. Not to mention that I have to throw away all the learning that Ive already developed with the great toolset that I already bought and learn another whole set of rental tools at the hardware store. If I wanted to rent tools, then I wouldnt have bought the toolbox in the first place (which was probably what the hardware store really wanted when they came up with this scheme). Here is the problem people have with this scenario: Last year, the toolbox included 5 uses. This year the toolbox costs $15 more but only allows a single use. Ok, it adds a free service that used to cost $15 but we may or may not want to use that service and if we did, we could send in a rebate for to get the $15 back, making it effectively free. But Free service aside, what happened to the value of those unlimited uses? The price of the toolbox stayed the same, but the functionality went down because we can only use it once. Maybe it would be more ok if there was a big sign at the store that said: SAVE ON THIS TOOLBOX! YOU CAN ONLY USE IT ONCE BUT ITS CHEAPER! Or at have the decency to post a very big warning: THIS TOOLBOX COSTS THE SAME AS LAST YEAR, BUT YOU CAN ONLY USE IT ONCE! Dont let them get away this price increase that has no basis in common sense. Avoid TurboTax this year until they change this ridiculous policy, even if you only prepare a single return with it. If you buy it, theyll use your sales data to justify this unreasonable change, then who knows what else they will try to charge us for next for doing nothing on their part. Looking at the big picture, what Intuit probably wants in the long term is to move people away from the boxed product and over onto the online product and then kill off the boxed product. This would eliminate the costs of physical production and distribution and the bandwidth costs of distributing software updates. It would also eliminate the slice of the profits given to retailers that sell their boxed product and kill off any promotional pricing or freebies. With no retailer competition, Intuit could charge whatever they want for their online service. It would also increase customer lock-in since their data would be purely stored on their own company servers.

Well, just as most of the other folks have pointed out, TurboTax has become very expensive. In addition, it takes a long time to load once the desktop icon is double-clicked and checking for updates seems to take longer than I have patience for. I have canceled the check for updates on at least 2 occasions because I just didnt have the time to wait. If this years pain is still clear in my mind next year, I will have my taxes done by a professional and not use tax software again.