Customer Reviews

TurboTax 2001 Deluxe

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(13)

 

 

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.

I have been a long time user of TurboTax. NEVER AGAIN. While loading TurboTax 2001 from CD it force loaded (without asking me yes or no) IE 5.5 . This load terminated abnormally and clobbered my Windows 98 system. When I tried to reboot, my system would not come up due to page faults in explorer.exe module. I'm running IE 5.0 as my browser and would never casually load a new version of Internet Explorer because of all the hooks into the WIN98 OS. I was not given a choice with TurboTax. I called their help desk and they were NO HELP. After 12 hours on the phone over two days with Microsoft support I was finally able to get my system back by RELOADING WINDOWS 98. While on the phone with MS support I asked if other people were having this problem. My tech said he had worked with a couple of IE 6.0 users who were fouled up because of the forced download of a backlevel (5.5)IE.
Intuit's force load of IE 5.5 with TurboTax is unconscionable. They should be forced to recall all CDs that force load IE 5.5
before a lot of other people get burned. I'm sure the only reason that Intuit did it this way was to get revenue from MS to the peril of their customers. NO APPLICATION should force a browser decision. Period.

I must say that I was sceptical, when I bought TurboTax Deluxe. I thought I will never have enough time and patience to deal with software to fill in tax forms.

But, I must say, it was very easy! The interface is very intuitive, it very quickly figured out my situation and asked me all the relevent questions.

I have a fairly complex tax return, with stocks, 2 jobs, AMT etc. It used to cost me about $500 to do it with an accountant. But it was a breeze with TurboTax. I was done in 30 minutes, and was ready to file.

I also imported all my data from Microsoft Money, which worked fine, and downloaded my W-2 from the processing site (through TurboTax) which also went smoothly.

Bootom line: it will save you some money.

This is my fourth year using Quicken TurboTax and it will be my second year using the state tax version. I'm sold on it. I can't imagine going back to pen and paper to do taxes. The program takes you step-by-step through the tax process by asking you questions about the various sections of the forms. It also prompts you to make you remember about things that may have slipped you mind, like other deductions. And, it makes suggestions for deductions that you may not have thought about. At the end of the process you can print out the forms for mailing in the traditional format or in a format that's easy for the IRS computers to read. In addition, you can opt to file electronicly. The help section IS very helpful. It actually makes sense of the rules and instructions for filing your taxes and explains the relevant sections of the tax code in easy to understand language. My one suggestion is that you have all your papers with you before you start the process. You can, of course, save your work and come back to finish or edit it, but it is a pain to be half way through and remember that your mortgage statement is two floors away.

My advice: Don't do your taxes without it.

I have used Turbo Tax for the past 5 years and had been very pleased with it. This year, however, I had major problems with my system after loading it. After loading the program I lost all icons on the desktop and had to get instructions on restoring my system. Then, when I tried to use Money I was given the error message that the Program and the files were corrupted. I tried uninstalling Money and reinstalling to no avail. My backup disk also did not work. I then had to call Microsoft to help me correct my problem. This is the first time I have ever had a problem that I had to get assistance on. I also called Intuit and they thought it might have been a faulty disk but were not very helpful. Because of the problems incurred I will NOT try the 2001 version again.

I've used this product since 1995 and like it a lot. It has handled complex situations, such as when I married and my wife was a non-resident of the US.

However, in 2001, I spent some months working in California, so I must file dual-state returns between Virginia (resident) and California (non-resident). TurboTax doesn't handle this very well. It tells you to do your non-resident state return first, but unfortunately there's a weird setup between VA and CA that requires you to do VA first, even if you're a VA resident.

Granted, this is a quirk of the tax agreement between VA and CA, but be aware that the same situation exists between VA and a few other states.

Otherwise, a great product and I highly recommend it. From 2002 on, I am back to single-state returns, so I anticipate no problems at all.

I have used TurboTax for years. This product is easy to use, complete with informative multimedia movie clips. It can remove a lot of the tedious drudgery we are faced with when preparing our tax returns.

Of course, it won't make a complicated tax return simple, but at least Intuit is trying. Every year my tax return grows, and I now find myself entering a multitude of 1099's, W2s, and schedules. Included in the help files is a copy of the IRS regulations and some IRS publications, which can help you research various issues. The interview process doesn't always capture your situation, and you will have to skip over a lot of questions not related to your situation. You will also probably find yourself shuttling back and forth between the interviews and forms.

In spite of the deficiencies, it does alleviate some of the agony.

I've bought this product for that last several years, and have always found it very useful. However, it almost cost me $3,600 in refunds last year. I have a rental property, and after entering all of the information it calculated that the deductions for the rental property were not allowed. I did a once over on the forms and then sent them in without realizing that it hadn't included the deduction (pretty stupid thing to do after I thought about it). Thank goodness the IRS caught the mistake and added the $3,600 into my refund. I've bought the product again this year as it does help in tracking information from year to year. But, I'll definitely be thoroughly reviewing the forms before sending them in.

If you've got complex tax issues such as if you're a heavy stock trader, own a rental property, live overseas, etc. it's a worthwhile product. If you've got a pretty basic tax return that only includes family and mortgage deductions you might question whether it's really worth it.

I used TurboTax and MacInTax (the Apple variant of Turbo Tax) for about 8 years. In 1999 I found the software had some rediculous bugs in it, and the instructions were lacking (didn't tell me where I should post a $$ amount). I called Intuit to tell them about the error, and to get further instruction on where to put the $$ amount. Their customer support was poor, and very frustrating. They didn't want to hear about the bug. I was trying to HELP them, but they said that if I wanted to report the problem I'd have to write them a letter. They refused to take the information over the phone! They also refused to provide any further instruction on how to use the software. I was not looking for tax counselling, I was only trying to get a basic question answered. So ... I switched to H&R Block Tax Cut. The software was approximately the same design as the TurboTax. I didn't encounter any problems with it, and I didn't have any occasion to call their customer service.

I have used, and have been quite happy with TurboTax for three years. When I re-installed this year, I noticed that Internet Explorer was being automatically installed. As is my habit, I uninstalled it, then found that TurboTax would not run without it. I looked on Intuit's customer support site, and the topic of Internet Explorer was their number one FAQ for TurboTax. Customer Support's response was that "you can uninstall Internet Explorer after you file your taxes". Forget that! No credible explanation as to WHY other browsers are not supported. I don't like being forced to use a different browser.