TurboTax- ItsDeductible

by Intuit

Product Features

• Tax software helps users with tax deductions
• Estimate fair market value of donations
• Automatically import data to TurboTax
• Saves hundreds of dollars
• Very easy to use

Product Details

• Shipping Weight: 4.8 ounces
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S. and to APO/FPO addresses. For APO/FPO shipments, please check with the manufacturer regarding warranty and support issues.
• ASIN: B0000EI9BX
• Date first available at Amazon.com: November 1, 2003
• Average Customer Review: 2.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (45 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #14,438 in Software (See Top 100 in Software)
• Discontinued by manufacturer: Yes

Product Description

From the Manufacturer

ItsDeductible, from the makers of TurboTax software, determines and assigns the actual fair market value to thousands of donated items, saving you at least $300 on your taxes... guaranteed! Every year millions of Americans donate used clothing, toys and other household items to charity. While most realize that their donations are tax deductible, they have no idea how to assign the actual fair market value to their donated items. As a result, most people just guess, missing out on hundreds of dollars of tax savings. ItsDeductible will show you exactly what your donated items are worth and automatically import your donation information into any of the TurboTax 1040 products, making tax time easier than ever.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

22 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Helpful Product, but Deceptive Advertising, January 24, 2004

By 

"ged_davies" (Sunnyvale, CA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: TurboTax- ItsDeductible (CD-ROM)

Gripe 1:

The back of the box says:

"You need ItsDeductible... If you donate clothing, household goods, or other items to charity..."

The inside cover lists specific examples, the last on the list is "Computer Monitor", in "Good" condition. It looks as if you can deduct $107 for such an item.

What the box DOESN'T say is that to access values for "Electronics and Computers", you need "ItsDeductible Deluxe features". For these you pay an additional $10 to "upgrade your software online".

Gripe 2:

There's nothing on the box to tell you the software can only be used for one tax year - and you must buy another license to use it for a second tax year. You don't discover this until you start the program for the first time AFTER you've installed the software. The example on the back cover of the box shows the tax year is a pull-down selection list, but when you see the actual screen, the year is just fixed text showing the year you selected when you first ran the program.

This is very tacky. It's hard to believe it's legal to do this. I presume Intuit is assuming it will be too much trouble for anyone to go after them.

These irritations are a shame because the product otherwise has good potential. Yes you could use an Excel spreadsheet as I already did to track my original donations, but correlating donation and value is much quicker with ItsDeductible.

My one electronic item? (a used boom-box in good condition) NO WAY I'LL PAY THE $10 UPGRADE. I'll just make up a dollar value and think less of Intuit.

27 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Didn't do what I expected, January 22, 2004

By 

book_review_grrl "book_review_grrl" (Raleigh, NC) - See all my reviews

This review is from: TurboTax- ItsDeductible (CD-ROM)

I thought that this program would be like TurboTax, in the sense that I thought it would make suggestions on how I could change my charitable giving to save even more on my taxes.

However, it isn't much more than a glorified way to keep track of your giving -- which you could do in a spreadsheet program or Quicken or even by saving receipts.

The only thing I really learned from the program is that you can deduct the mileage for your trips to donate non-cash items. Other than that, my guesses as to "fair market value" for my donated items were pretty much right in line with what It's Deductible suggested. All that keying in ... and not much difference in the bottom line.

Moral? Don't spend the $20 on this one. Buy a really nice calculator instead to add up the value of all your items.

21 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Simplifies bookkeeping, but no real substance, January 16, 2004

By 

Joe (Texas) - See all my reviews

This review is from: TurboTax- ItsDeductible (CD-ROM)

The program does produce a nice report, and it does import into TurboTax but it's database is pretty spartan. (Re: the import glitch: you need to close It's Deductible first, otherwise there's a file access conflict) The Jan 1st "glitch" is intentional -- the software is only good for one tax year. Don't buy this now thinking you can itemize last year donations and track this year's donations, too.

Database issues: You need the Deluxe version ($10 more) to download computer and electronics values (this is despite the example on the box saying 'computer monitor.' There was no 'kitchen chair,' no Barbie items (but Bionicles toys were specifically listed). I ended up building my own items and values.

I expected more from Intuit. I went to the support page to see about the refund (no $300 reduction here) but the entire page is under reconstruction. I'll update this review regarding success of refund attempt.