Customer Reviews

TurboTax Deluxe Federal + eFile + State 2009

5 star:		(206)
4 star:		(92)
3 star:		(47)
2 star:		(33)
1 star:		(83)

 

 

I have always used turbotax but this year but they changed their pricing. The package says one free state download. True, you can download one state of your choice. However, you only get to prepare one state only. All additional state preparations are at $39 via download of even the same state. Thus for example, you have two family members living in California. The first person downloads the free California state download. If the second family member, who also needs to file the California state return, the second family member needs to pay $39 to turbotax via the software, to prepare the second state return, again, even if it is the same state. Contacted turbotax and it took several tries until they stated that this is the case. The first few times they would not confirm it but rather dodge the question and give an ambiguous answer, not admitting to the change.


1/16/10 update: after installing an online software update yesterday, it seems that turbotax has now changed their policy/software back to the way it was in previous years (probably due to the numerous complaints that they have received). Now, as with last year's edition, you can do more than one state preparation for the same state, for the one free state that you have download. I have now given it 4 stars instead of the previous 1 star, with 4 stars becuase turbotax, as stated above, tried to previously limit the one free download to also mean one state prep (which is not the case now). Other than the previous frustration regarding the state download problem, turbotax has always given me great results. Great advice/info when you tag the help function. The help function will guide you for whatever is currently on the screen, thus you do not have to hunt for the information.


2/17/10 update
I have still been hearing that some people cannot do more than one state prep for the free included one state download. I have downgraded the star ratings from a 4 previously to a 2 now because the state download/prep problem still exists for some people. If the problem is fixed, I will upgrade the star rating then.

Don't know if it is real but "Bob Meighan, VP of turbotax" wrote to one of my comments on the deluxe version stating that:

****************************
Bob Meighan says:
Anthony... TurboTax does not charge extra for preparing multiple state returns for the same state. There was no change in our pricing policy this year. I believe if you received a different story from one of our agents, I suspect it was because they probably thought you were referring to TurboTax Online, where you are charged for each return.

Bob Meighan
VP, TurboTax
****************************

Again I don't know if Bob is for real. If so, I would kindly ask Bob if he could change the turbotax website to state officially, for once and for all, that a buyer of the desktop version shall have unlimited state preps for the same free included state download.

I have also heard from another buyer that turbotax said this was due to a software flaw and should be fixed by Feb 25. We shall see. In the meantime, even though I can do multiple returns on the same state, many others cannot, thus buyer beware.


2/28/10 update:
The problem seems to be fixed. I am upgrading the ratings from 2 stars to 4 now, after it seems to be finally working now. I have received a comment stating that now it is possible to prepare more than one same state return from the free one included state download. Please let us know if it IS or IS NOT working for you.

 

Given all the negative reviews of Turbo Tax last year, I bought Tax Cut. This was after years of using Turbo Tax. I agreed with those that pointed out how Intuit was trying to make more money off their product by the way they packaged their product. Unfortunately, one of my most tedious tasks in tax preparation is reporting stock transactions. Tax cut provided absolutely no way to download my transactions from Fidelity. Turbo Tax has agreements with most major brokerage houses for automatic down loads of your brokerage records.

So, I also bought Turbo Tax and finished my return. Until other products offer this feature, it's not worth it for me to switch.

I have used TT for years and have no real complaints about the program itself, despite some minor flaws. However, last year I switched to the other brand as the marketing mavens at Intuit decided to try to milk the cow further by charging for printing additional returns (a move they quickly reversed after they were publicly flogged for it). Back to TT this year - our family has a sole proprietor business and each time I visit Schedule C, I have to answer "No, I do not want to upgrade to TurboTax Home & Business for $40" since I can do everything I need to with TT Home Deluxe. (And "No, I do not want to upgrade to Premier" every time I get to the Investments section either.) However, with a death in our family, I now need to also file a return for a decedent's estate, which is form 1041. Guess what? That is not included in any TurboTax Home product, including Home & Business. That form, which has line items virtually identical to the standard 1040, is only found in TurboTax Business, a different product that costs $110 with no upgrade path from any Home version. I guess there are only 3 things that are inevitable - death, taxes, and Intuit's inability to grow revenues other than to unbundle features so they can charge separately for them (see also Quicken Home Inventory Management which had been part of regular Quicken) or to bundle features customers don't want and have them pay for them (see others' comments on TT e-file inclusion, etc.).

We purchased TurboTax 2009 for just two purposes - to compare the software's results with our "pencil and paper" results, and then to e-file both State and Federal. We purchased the download version of TurboTax Deluxe Federal + State 2009 + efile [DOWNLOAD] .

The install went very smoothly on our Windows XP SP3 computer. I had feared some problems based on other reviews, but experienced none. Immediately after install and the initial run, the program presented us with a decision regarding refund and payment options. We could either choose to see all our options, OR some options (then must check boxes for different ways to receive refund or pay TurboTax fees), OR no options. It is necessary to certify consent to the first choice. I suspected something fishy, so I selected the second choice and proceeded.

All data entry for Federal went well, so we smoothly downloaded our included State forms. The program populated the State form with data from our Federal form, and then asked a few more questions to tailor it to the specifics.

We thought the process was pretty nice, although I wished the program would have explained certain topics a little better. For example, it was hard for us to figure out exactly how to characterize and where to enter some "other income," although we finally figured that out. There is a "live community" option on the right side of the screen where you can view other people's questions and answers, but you must create an account and sign in to take advantage of this.

The only real problem came at the end. The program was unable to connect to the TurboTax server to let us pay for State e-file. I did some troubleshooting with TurboTax support to verify Internet connectivity, firewall settings, etc. The support technician was unable to solve the problem, and suggested that the problem might lie with my ISP. I was not buying the likelihood of that, as the ISP we use is (I believe) one of the larger ones on the East Coast, and we have not had recognizable problems with their service and pay many bills (and make many transactions) seamlessly online.

I was able to effortlessly go back and e-file our Federal taxes. We are going to have to mail in our State forms.

In reality, we DID get everything we payed for (along with some wasted time and aggravation regarding the above problem). It just would have been nice to have been able to e-file our State taxes.

We have used TurboTax for several years and have been quite satisfied. This year we decided to download the TurboTax 2009 software from Amazon once again. BIG MISTAKE.

Many of the problems that we--and lots of other customers--were having with the download and installation process seem to be related to Microsoft Windows. However, after hours of work my computer-guru husband finally did manage to get TurboTax successfully installed. Relief.

Wait. We relaxed too soon. I sat down to use the software, and the first thing I needed to do was import last year's data from TurboTax 2008. The text on the application window looked a bit fuzzy, but you can't have everything, right? Apparently not, because neither could I import last year's tax data. We tried everything we could think of. Nothing worked.

We're checking into Tax Cut and the H & R Block software. Farewell, TurboTax.

In December I purchased Turbo Tax Deluxe Federal + State 2009 + efile software from an Amazon vendor. The software installed quickly onto my computer and I worked with the federal taxes with no problem. However, when I wanted to work with my state taxes, I was not able to access the state return without being prompted to pay Turbo Tax $39.95 for the state download. I contacted Turbo Tax's Support Services by e-mail and explained that the software I purchased was supposed to include one free state return. They responded by giving me a toll free number to call and an incident number to give to their support services operator. I called that number and with the operator's assistance, I had the state return downloaded and installed in a few minutes. I have been a Turbo Tax software user for many years and have few complaints. I like being able to transfer data from the previous year's tax returns and the fact that Turbo Tax keeps up to date on tax laws so that I don't miss something. I can put up with the prompts to upgrade and the occasional glitches. You can get around those. The main thing is getting the final tax return for filing that is as complete and accurate as possible.

I have been using Turbotax for many years and find it an excellent product for completing my income tax returns. This year I had the opportunity to beta test the program. From a trouble free installation and throughout the test I had no problems. I also have been volunteering and doing tax returns through AARP and they use Taxwise. I find Turbotax much easier to use than Taxwise. It is more intuitive and dcoesn't leave you guessing.

2009 TurboTax Deluxe for Mac should have been labeled a beta edition and not released for purchase. (The 2009 beta testers who were so happy with the software obviously did not evaluate the Mac version.)

I have used TurboTax Deluxe for many years, the last three on the Mac, and have found it to be excellent--until now. This year I bought it in early December to do year-end tax planning. After installing updates and importing my 2008 return, I first turned to the charitable deductions section, a basic section that any itemizer would use, and started entering my donations. I found the process to be disgracefully buggy. The entered date and type of the donation were not recorded for any donation and every edit button was non-functional. Finally, when I tried to delete entries (since they couldn't be edited), the delete function didn't work either, even after "confirming" the deletion when asked.

I contacted Intuit support and was told to view support item #7637, originally posted by Turbotax on 12/7/09 and updated today (12/15/09), which indicates that these bugs, which only affect the Mac version, were known. It mentions all the bugs, except the inability to delete a donation, and says Turbotax plans to post a solution, "currently scheduled for 1/9/2010". Don't ask me why this simple problem in a mature software should take more than a month to fix. (And, so much for using TurboTax for Mac for year-end tax planning.) I can't comment on any other sections of the software, since I stopped using it. I hadn't planned on being a beta tester.

I hope this terrible quality control, affecting a basic function in previously outstanding tax software (that must be error-free), is not a preview of things to come. Get your act together, Intuit. Don't ruin a good thing for yourself.

 

I am spending WAY too much time with this one state return issue. I have prepared returns for my Father in Law, My joint return for my wife and returns for each of my children for over ten years with this software and have been a loyal customer. Now I have to buy three more state packages to do these returns? This is a HUGE price increase for me. This equates to about a 300% price increase. TurboTax Deluxe Federal + State 2009 + efileNot only is it a pain in the rear, but I am losing confidence that this is a product I want to rely on next year. I feel this was deceitful in that I had no idea they were doing this when I picked it up off the shelf. Seriously, I can do this by hand, or use a "free" product. I am now an UNHAPPY customer. Great job managing your brand, intuit!

I'm so irritated! After using Turbotax for years, I switched to TaxAct last year over the pricing issue. (Had NO problems with TaxAct.) But this year I decided to go back to TurboTax since they dealt with the pricing issue and I like the user interface better than taxAct. I spent $67.50 for TurboTax Deluxe Federal (on CD) and State (a free download that I've not gotten yet)including the shipping. It arrived. I installed. No problems. (By the way, I've used the same computer for years and I have no viruses or malware on my system whatsoever.) I began my return and got a little ways and needed to quit so I saved it. I've opened it a couple of times since and even started on a second return for my son. Saved it too. So today I opened the program and it asked if I wanted to check for the recommended updates. I said yes and downloaded them. After that I clicked on "continue return" and it started opening little boxes that showed only on my taskbar at the bottom of my screen. Then the "solution" box came up and stayed there forever. At that point, everything froze for good. I brought up my task manager and ended the program. Rebooted the computer and tried again. Many times I rebooted but as soon as I'd click on "continue return" everything freezes. I rebooted one final time, (didn't try to open the darned TT program) but went to google and discovered that this is NOT a rare problem this year. So I went to Intuit's site for support. Guess what??? They know about the problem but don't have a fix for it!!! They do however have a little box so you can fill in your info so they can "notify you when they have a solution to the problem" !! Nice!
I just thought I'd put this on for a warning to those that need to do their taxes right away as I do. My son's are in college and we need the taxes done so they can file their appropriate financial aid forms so I'm quite unhappy.