Customer Reviews

TurboTax Deluxe Federal + efile 2009 [Old Version]

5 star:		(32)
4 star:		(18)
3 star:		(11)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(13)

 

 

I've been using Turbotax Deluxe for over 10 years now. I love this product. Usually I buy it from a box store here in Kansas. But this year I ordered it from Amazon as a download. In the product description, there is a chart that shows which versions include what features. For Deluxe, the Sate return is included as a free download. HOWEVER, this is not true if you order the version Amazon calls "TurboTax Deluxe Federal + efile 2009." I called Amazon customer service and was very pleased with the immediate response that they had refunded me for an otherwise non-refundable return policy on downloaded products. I now understand that some people, like Texas and Florida residents, do not want the State Return in their product and that's why Amazon sells two different products. They said they would fix the charts that indicate a free state return. The product is excellent and so is Amazon customer service.

This review is for TuboTax 2009 Deluxe for Federal Returns. Fortunately I live in Texas and there is no state income tax so I don't have to worry about the state portion.

TurboTax has had its share of issues but I came back to it because it does seem to be the best there is, but I'm knocking off a star because of the history of issues I've had with the program in previous years (like it not calculating tax correctly until I deleted some assets and then re-entered them). However, I was a little shocked to read that it requires 500MB of HD space PLUS up to 620MB more if Microsoft .NET 3.5 SP1 is not installed (Mac is only 255MB). Wow! That could be over 1GB to do taxes. How inefficient we have become!

I just installed TurboTax Fed Deluxe on a Vista x64 system (it's Jan 7th, 2010) and didn't have any problems. In fact, it installed very quickly considering that it claims it needs 500MB (but I do have an SSD drive that greatly speeds things up). TurboTax immediately found 4 updates and asked me if I wanted to update. The updates seemed to have installed just fine. "Uninstall or change a programs" says TurboTax 2009 is using 343MB. It says TurboTax 2008 (from last year and still on my computer) is "only" 162MB, so a BIG increase (but I wonder how accurate are these figures?). In any case, even 1GB of space is not a big requirement nowadays.

I will be working with this to help estimate my 2009 taxes before I pay may Jan 15th estimated tax payment.

NOTE: Deluxe will do a Schedule C just fine, but it may not provide as much help as the Home & Business version. If you have been doing taxes yourself for awhile then you might not need to pay the extra money for the additional help.

I will update this review as I continue to use the product.

Pros:
* Works on 64-bit versions of Windows XP and higher (of course that includes Vista and Windows 7)
* On Jan 8th, I used it to help compute an estimate of the tax I will owe for 2009 to help determine what to pay for my last 2009 estimated tax payment and the program did not crash.
* I had a "flawless" install and update on Vista 64-bit - didn't ask for any serial or reg code
* Probably the best tax program there is
* Price includes federal E-File
* Deluxe version can do a Schedule C for the self-employed - but it doesn't provide as much guidance as the Home & Business edition

Cons:
* Not perfect (but how can US taxes ever be perfect)?
* Annoying "smart" input entries that try to format things like dates while you're still entering them
* Bad/complicated handling of SEP contributions
* Have encountered bugs in previous years that caused me to have to delete and re-enter assets
* Might take up to 1.12GB of HD space on Windows according to the system requirements

Updated -- 27 Feb 2009

I have since purchased the H&R block Taxcut for use. It's not as glitzy as Turbotax but seems very adequate. Taxcut installed without a hitch on my Windows 7 machine. The has both the main tax program and a separate DeductionPro program. The latter is on your PC and not on the web, unlike the Turbotax ItsDeductible. DeductionPro also permits you to print out the complete list of charitable items values. Taxcut does have its own quirks such as requiring a classic display theme on windows 7, but so far I find it reasonably pleasant to use (if you can say that doing taxes is ever pleasant) The H&R Block software is significantly cheaper than Turbotax: for the Federal + e-file Deluxe versions, Turbotax is about $37 and Taxcut is about $23. They both cover pretty much the same tax situations. After using both programs, I just don't see the value of the extra $14 in Turbotax.

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I have used Turbotax for many years, but I will not use it next year. Turbotax Deluxe 2009 has a user interface that follows the pattern from previous years: it is less user friendly than the year before. OK, here are a few items that really irritate me:
1. Continual advertising to get you to buy a more expensive product.
2. Help that is not helpful at all.
3. A default save location that apparently cannot be changed once you have initially set up Turbotax. You apparently have to perform a save as and manually change the save location every time.
4. Silly questions that the software should be smart enough not to ask or at least to ask only once: e.g. Do you get any Canadian retirement income?

I set up Turbotax last month, but I really only started using it today to start my taxes. I am an experienced Turbotax user from previous years, but I wonder if Intuit is so arrogant they assume we will buy their product no matter how bad it becomes. I am a retired software engineer; so I know that user friendly, consistent interfaces can be built. The title of Alan Cooper's 1999 software book sums up the design and implementation of Turbotax 2009: "The Inmates Are Running the Asylum."

I tried to save a few bucks by using the online deluxe edition. BIG MISTAKE! It has a glaring fault. You can not print your return to review it until you have paid. However, once you have paid, if you find an error, you can not clear the return and start over. In my case, due to an error in importing data from my financial institution, there was an incorrect entry in adjustments to income. TTax does not let you access this directly, the only possbilitiy was to clear the return and start over, but then I found that was impossible. So the return I paid for + the time to fill it out is useless. I refuse to pay twice, especially for a product with such poor customer service, so I'm going to a friends house to use their CD based copy of the software. Next year I'll probably just try a different brand entirely.

I purchased TT Deluxe and had A LOT of stock trades. I use Gainskeeper to track the sales and determine my cost basis. When I downloaded the transactions, the result was WAAAYYYY off... as in $5,000,000 (yes, MILLION) off. I did the paid upgrade to Premier thinking this might be part of the problem. Nope... didn't work. Intuit says contact your financial institution because it can't be their fault. I did... but since it was Sunday they weren't open. No big deal. I then erased the download information and tried to download my stuff from both Fidelity and E*Trade... guess what??? Same issue. Today Gainskeeper got back to me saying that they've been trying to work with Intuit but weren't getting anywhere... they asked me to try talking with Intuit, which I did. I just got off the phone... Intuit's answer was to enter all of my stock trades in manually (NO WAY!) because it's a known bug and they don't foresee resolving it this tax season. I asked for a refund and am expecting it any day now.

It seems that every few days the price goes up by $2 on the Deluxe version. Curious.

But, my main gripe is that it is nearly impossible to tell ahead of time what each version will do for you (as in: IRS forms) as opposed to the hype about the level of help it can do to reduce your taxes. Does everyone who is self-employed need the top Home and Business version? Do you need Premier if you have rental property, or is it just helpful with guidance?

Next year I'll spend more time comparing other software, as long as they can import all of my data, I'm considering it.

Amazon was the first place I found the TurboTax Delux for 2009 and it was the least expensive I have found. I received it quickly and got an early start on my 2009 taxes. It came in excellent condition.

I will never buy this program again! After finishing my taxes, I go to efile and I can't because the program says I need to download updates. After trying to download the updates (4 of them), it still won't let me efile. Called the help number from Turbotax website and after 2 hours I still cannot efile. Done with Turbotax and will never purchase again!

This software asked me to "upgrade to state for $39." I intentionally purchased this product without the state portion because I live in Florida, which has no state income tax. If I thought I had to pay state income tax I would have paid the $10 extra for the version with it but surely not $39.

Then I came to the portion for stocks. I have stocks but only a couple hundred dollars worth. Turbo Tax Deluxe repeatedly told me to upgrade to Premier for another $30. I contacted the customer support on the website and told them I see no need to upgrade to state for $39 and Premier for another $30 since the whole Turbo Tax Premier with state was $58 on Amazon. The customer service rep said he knows nothing of tax issues or the actual working of the product. The best he could do was pull up the "help" section in Turbo Tax Deluxe. He went on to say all versions of Turbo Tax have the same forms (accessed with the "forms" button on the screen) but the difference is in the on-screen interviews.

I have had problems with this software package in the past. For those of you working in multiple States, there is much to be desired. From a consultants perspective, there is much to be desired. Still, it is better than slogging through the tax code on your own.