Customer Reviews

TurboTax Home & Business Federal + State + Federal efile 2009 [Download] [OLD VERSION]

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(9)

 

 

I just downloaded TurboTax Home & Business (for tax year 2009) from Amazon. Despite the initial negative reviews talking about TurboTax's bugginess, I needed to purchase the product today (12/31) so that I could take the expense deduction on my 2009 tax return. I've followed the prices for a while and seen them decline. The $73.62 price that I paid to download probably won't be the lowest, but if last year's price history chart is any indication, the price will bottom somewhere around $65 in mid-January before jumping back up into the mid $90's around February 1st when everyone gets their W-2 forms and are ready to actually do their taxes.

The download from Amazon was fast and flawless, and I do mean fast. I have Comcast internet and all 85 MB was downloaded to my computer in slightly less than a minute. I know that the Amazon website says 105 MB, but the Amazon downloader only stated 85 MB.

Installation also occured flawlessly on my computer running XP. Upon executing, the software downloaded the latest updates from Intuit flawlessly. Once the program was up and running, I imported 2008's return, added my password, and saved. I won't do anything else until I receive my W-2's in late January. By then I expect Intuit to probably have another update to improve/fix anything else.

I've been using TurboTax for my Home & Business since 2004 and have never been dissapointed with the software. The only thing that I was dissapointed with was the price that I was charged as a returning Intuit TurboTax customer. I believe that Intuit charges about $106 including shipping. Needless to say, I'm quite happy paying $73 and getting the same software.

I had a problem with this downloading process, but I found the solution.

The Amazon Games & Software Downloader, a program required to download and install this software, had locked up my computer when I tried to install it. The only way I could get out of this situation was to reboot my computer by pressing the computer's reset button (hard re-boot). After multiple tries without success (including downloading the Amazon Games & Software Downloader many times), I thought that maybe my security software was interfering with the installation. I tried pausing my firewall (Kaspersky) and closing my anti-spyware program (Webroot) before installing the Amazon Games & Software Downloader, but it still locked up my computer during installation.

I searched the Amazon FAQ and other information on Amazon's site for help with this problem, but there is no mention of any software or settings that would be incompatible with the Amazon Games & Software Downloader or that might cause my computer to freeze.

Finally, I found the solution: I uninstalled "Webroot Spyware Sweeper" from my computer. Just closing it did not work.

After that I was able to successfully install the Amazon Games & Software Downloader, access my software from my Amazon software Library, and install it without problem. I am happy with the software, and this was the cheapest price I could find for it at this time. I took a star off my rating because the software publisher does not provide a discounted price for repeat customers.

I expect that the software that I bought, TurboTax Home & Business 2009, will be available to me for downloading from my Amazon Software Library if anything goes wrong with my computer (like a hard disk failure) or if I want to upgrade to a new computer or change the computer's operating system. The Library seems straight-forward and easy to use.

My advice to that anyone who is going to purchase and download games or software from Amazon, is that they first download and install the Amazon Games & Software Downloader program successfully. That should minimize any problems.

I was disappointed to find that Turbo Tax has removed the simple Schedule C from the Deluxe version, so they can charge more money for this one. We have a small business, and have always been able to use the Deluxe version for about $30 less, but not this year. That being said, it is still very good software and just about anyone should be able to do their own taxes, then electronically file from home. I use the software and do the taxes for several family members too, all for the one price. Other than the mysterious moving of the Schedule C, I am as satisfied as I have been since 2003, when I first started with this company.

On Windows XP. The installation is completely botched up. It stopped at some point the very first time I ran it and said a version of turbotax is installed. It opened up a support page on the web that said you may get this message even if you do not have the 2009 version installed.

It had an instructions to repair the 2008 (yes 2008) version on the computer. But the original installation was hung so the repair of 2008 wouldn't start. Killed the 2009 installation and started the 2008 repair. It aborted in the middle saying it cannot be repaired. I tried running the 2009 version that seems to have been installed but it is turbo tax basic! Tried installing again and it said I have to uninstall 2009 first. Tried to uninstall and the uninstaller failed in the middle and said serious windows installer error. So I cannot install and i cannot uninstall. I hope I can get a refund.

Why do we continue to support crappy software?

I downloaded the Amazon software installer, downloaded TT home and business, installed it, updated the TT software, started a new return and imported last year's data in approximately 20 minutes with no problems whatsoever. I had just spent close to an hour reading reviews about the problems others had which seems to have been time wasted.

TurboTax is an ok tax program, but Intuit is incompetent from a technical standpoint. I'm running Windows 7 with everything up to date. Their error page (http://turbotax.intuit.com/support/kb/installing/errors/5093.html) places the blame on either Windows Installer or MS .NET Framework installation. Funny how I've had absolutely no problems installing other programs.

The TurboTax software would not install on my Windows Vista machine due to an issue with (...) Framework 3.5 SP1 verification. I tried repairing 3.5 SP1, as well as uninstalling/reinstalling, without success. I called Intuit support and after various troubleshooting efforts was eventually told it just wasn't going to work. They admitted the fault was with their software. Intuit offered me a voucher to use the online version of TurboTax Home & Business at no cost to me.

TurboTax contains a current bug in the Wisconsin state version. If you have HSA account income, the program will not transfer the correct income amount from your Fed form 1040 or 1040A to the Wisconsin Sched I form. The Wisconsin return program will in effect, double the HSA income you report on your Federal return, causing an over-calculation error of tax due (you will pay more than you owe, if you accept TurboTax calculations). The income error can be directly overridden on the Wisconsin Sched I form, but when you do and attempt to eFile your state return, TurboTax will accept your $19.95 eFile payment, and then it will block you from eFiling the state return with the overridden (correct) income amount on Line 1 of Sched I.

This has been reported to TurboTax Tech Support and they refuse to acknowledge any issues with the program. All you receive in response is a canned email saying they don't have enough information to determine if this is a bug and you should contact Tech Support again. Contact tech support a second time, and you'll get the same canned response as the first time.

If you buy this, don't count on eFiling a correct Wisconsin return, but if you don't mind paying more tax than you should, then go for it!

Not a problem with turbo tax, but be warned Amazon's download purchase requires that you INSTALL software on your computer in order to download the software you purchased.

This is not spelled out until you've already completed the purchase and paid your money.

I've no idea why Amazon would need to install software on a local computer in order to download files. I seem to manage this task just fine with my browser. At any rate, as a developer, I keep pretty careful track of my environment and do not install stuff on my workstation w/o a pretty good reason.

I'm annoyed that I need to go through the hassle of setting up a dummy computer to install the Amazon software so that I can download the software I purchased. Without knowing what the Amazon software ACTUALLY does, I'm not inclined to install it on a computer permanently attached to my network.

I will not be purchasing any download software from Amazon in the future solely for this reason.

I spent over 10 hours trying to install this software on my Vista machine and never could get it to complete the installation. I tried all of the various suggestions from TurboTax but each time it would hang up and I would have to delete the botched installation and try to start over again.

I will give Amazon credit for making an exception to their rule of no refunds on downloads. They are refunding my purchase since I can't get it to work.