Customer Reviews

TurboTax Basic 2004 [Old Version]

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

 

 

Fewer features than last year's version. Do not purchase this product if you sold stock from an employee stock purchase plan! Company offers to sell you Premier for $40 to get this feature.

I have been using Intuit products, Quicken and TurboTax, since 1992 and have been quite satisfied with the ease of installation, daily use capabilities and the extremely flexible data entry and reporting. This year I am appalled at the quality of their products and have, just now, been checking out the comparable Microsoft product reviews with an eye to switching horses. It doesn't sound like Microsoft is any better.
I am about ready to go back to paper forms for the taxes and an Excel spreadsheet for my money tracking. I refused to purchase their state tax program, last year and this, and, instead, used the on-line fill-in version on the state tax website. It's free.
I installed the TurboTax Basic 2004 and upgraded on-line and I still see little boxes with bright red X's instead of the appropriate icons on many pages. I went through the import last year's data and interview process, using the 'GUESS' system to interpret where the red X's were going to take me, then went to the individual forms and corrected information that the interview didn't bother to ask me about. I am assuming that the calculations for the data entered are correct but, you know what: this year, for the first time ever, I will check them with a calculator before I do my final printout to submit my taxes.
I worked in the computer industry for over thirty years before I retired; both software design and development and hardware evaluation. My personal opinion is the lack of quality products and customer satisfaction focus is a direct result of the major company interest in stock market performance and outsourcing overseas to save money instead of developing and supporting quality employees. I am SO grateful that I could retire when I did!!! 'nough said.

As of this year Turbo Tax Basic no longer supports employee stock plans, stock options, or simple schedule C functions. In order to get these you must buy the $69 Premier version. Worse yet, if you are a long time user of the basic version and don't bother checking the product comparison, you don't realize this until you have purchased and installed it. Very disappointing!!!!

This is my seventh year using Quicken TurboTax and it will be my fifth year using the state tax version. 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.

I tried Taxcut last year because of the product activation on TurboTax. I had problems with it right off. It stated on the box that you could import TurboTax files but when I tried it wouldn't let me. The Taxcut web site suggested that this was a common problem and that you had to edit your TurboTax file (with TurboTax) to bring it down to a certain size. Still, it didn't tell you what that size was ok or really give you any idea on what to cut out. (I thought all of the our tax info was important).

I have to agree that the advertising included in the product (for more Intuit products) now borders on the ridiculous and the program (like all programs) needs more space and more resources each year but I still think that is better that the competition.

My advice: TurboTax is still the best tax prep software. Don't do your taxes without it.

I skipped TT last year because of the CDilla incident.
I wasn't overly impressed with TaxCut, and now that Intuit learned their lesson about CDilla, I purchased it this year.
I'm very happy with TT. It seems more polished than every, and so far I have had no problems with it.

Despite the negative reviews, I decided to buy TurboTax anyway. I can't say for those of you using XP, but installing under Win98 was no problem. Despite saying it couldn't find my broadband connection the first time, hitting retry did the trick when doing the software updates. As to the comment of c-dilla being installed, didn't find it on my computer. As for other comments about spyware, didn't find that either.

TurboTax comes up in interview mode but this year they've added a customize feature so it will only deal with tax issues dealing to your situation or you can still go through the whole interview. I had no problems using it. I was able to print and save my return to pdf just like last year. If you're looking for something simple, TurboTax does it. As for the question of being able to import prior TurboTax files, it's always been able to do the prior year but I've yet to see that it does anything beyond that.

It did install their 'It's Deductible' software for me only to click it and it says 'buy it'. That's annoying. Also asking me to buy other services/products is a pain but that's marketing for you. That's the only reason I gave it 4 stars - annoying marketing and eating my disk space with software I won't use.

...each year it gets a little more cluttered with advertising, & licensing garbage. Also, there are too many different products making it difficult to choose the right one each year -- wish they would just sell one product that did the job!! The software also seems a little less helpful each year.

I have used Turbo Tax for the past 3 years, and have loved it. It was easy to install, pretty straightforward to use.

So when I sat down to install 2004, I didn't give it a second thought. However, the product developers probably need to go back to school on this one, and the manufacturer needs to issue a major apology to everyone who has tried to use this.

I consider myself way above average on the computer skills side. I could not get the product to load on a Compaq with Windows ME operating system. I kept getting error messages to install a second disk. It only comes with one.

I took it to another machine, and tried installing it on a Dell with Windows XP-Professional Edition. Here too, it would not install properly. It indicated that the installation was finished. However, it didn't install several files needed to make it work. It downloaded an update. You have to turn your computer off, then back on to install the update. The update wouldn't install. In fact the computer stalled. Had to reboot again, and start from scratch.

Since I was unable to install the product on either machine, I can't tell you how it handles the routines of calculating your income tax. My guess is that it is very error prone. If you used Turbo Tax, I'd pay an accountant to review your numbers to see that they are correct. Then I'd send the bills to Turbo Tax.

For me, I'm now checking out other products.
Since it won't install on either machine

I had written a review on a previous version of TurboTax when that little program installed C-Dilla without my permission or knowledge. Never again, I told myself. I should have listened to myself!

Imagine my surprise when after installing TurboTax I decided to run Webroot SpySweeper. Hmm...my machine was clean prior to the installation so what could this one little program have done?...Plenty! Right after the install, SpySweeper found 1 file and 26 instances of BonziBuddy splattered all over my system! Are you kidding me??

When will this company learn? Actually, when will I learn to STOP TRUSTING INTUIT!

I have used both TurboTax and TaxCut over the years and I prefer TurboTax. TaxCut gets the job done, but TurboTax is a more polished product. I did my 2004 taxes with TurboTax Basic and it did everything I asked of it. Install went smoothly. While the Basic edition lacks some of the features of the the upmarket products, I still managed to do what I needed to do, which included several mutual fund sales this year.

Unlike some of the other users who have had negative experiences, I have run into no examples of spyware and the program installed flawlessly. After an automatic update, I was able to quickly get going. TurboTax made my taxes as painless as they can be...