Customer Reviews

TurboTax Premier 2004 [Old Version]

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(7)
1 star:		(12)

 

 

Highly recommended for its well-written tax interview. Especially recommended for people who are self-employed or who have rental income. My biggest complaint is how long it takes to prepare a tax return on TurboTax Premier.

Clean user interface and understandable questions makes Turbo Tax easy to use. Generally, I get so fed up with interview-style questions that I switch to the forms mode and just avoid the interview altogether. The Turbo Tax interview, however, kept me so occupied answering questions that I didn't even think about switching to the forms mode until after the fact. I was very impressed with Turbo Tax's "Fair Market Rent Expert" tool for calculating the fair market rent of a rental real estate property.

My biggest complaint is the amount of time it took for me to complete a tax return. I measured the time starting from the moment I put the CD-ROM in the computer, so the time includes installation and tax preparation. It took me a little under one hour to complete a very simple tax return (53 minutes). A complex tax return took a little under two hours (1 hour, 54 minutes).

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. The "Deluxe" , "basic" & "Premier" software should be replaced by a single product -- this wasteful marketing (including various mail-in offers, etc.) just makes extra pointless work for all of us. The Premier verion is greatly overpriced and offers little beyond the basic and Deluxe models to justify its existence ... all of the functionality listed for this model should be included in the basic product.

The instore TurboTax Premier usually includes State forms for the price. This version from Amazon does not. I should have
read the details a little closer.

I have use Tubro Tax for a long time, but the value is dropping off quick. Might as well just get the "basic" version as the "premier" has even fewer features than last year. I was disappointed that they dropped the "Tax Forcaster" funtion from 2003. I did not have any problem installing, but was forced to do a complete reinstall with an update corrupted the program. But the overall quality and value is declining. My advice is just stay with the basic if you don't need to do the state return and hope the Intuit company takes notice and starts to improve their products.

Since you automatically ASSUMED the problem is MY FAULT let me give you a little more information:

I did enter my mortgage interest in the right area. I can READ instructions and you apparently did not understand my issue.

And YES I did see the instructions stating "If you had a HOME OFFICE and paid mortgage interest DO NOT enter your payments here. We'll ask for that amount later when we cover your home offices expenses".

Nowhere in my original review did I say I could not deduct mortgage interest for the home daycare. I simply said my problem was that it does not let me PRORATE the interest. When the program asked me for INDIRECT Home office expenses it asks for my entire home mortgage interest, but the IRS themselves and instructions clearly state to prorate this for part year businesses. Which was my case with my wife's home day care (93 days of 2004). TT lets you prorate it here however, the software always overwrites this value with the amount of mortgage interest you claim on Schedule A; you find this out after you are directed to itemized deductions (Schedule A) and TT asks you to enter your deductible mortgage interest for the entire year of 2004. When I type in the deductible mortgage interest here, the TT software then takes this exact amount and puts it back on form 8829 line 10b. In fact ANY value you enter here is carried over to form 8829. The only "calculation" being done here is a "copy and paste". There is no problem with real estate taxes (which I also prorated on form 8829). But for some reason Mortgage interest has issues.

TaxCut does these calculations correctly, why can't TurboTax? Also why can't you admit your software has a bug? IT DOES NOT ACCOUNT FOR PART YEAR BUSINESSES WHEN IT ASKS FOR YOUR MORTGAGE INTEREST PERIOD.

I spent 3 hours on the phone yesterday with TT support and we walked through the interview multiple times and we recreated the problem on EVERY occasion. Even the nice lady I was working with AGREED that there is a problem here. Maybe you should spend a day at customer service and walk through customer issues, or better yet try this yourself to see what I am talking about, instead of always assuming the customer is WRONG.

Better yet how about you email me, so I can send you detailed instructions to recreate the problem?

I look forward to your response.

And since we are on the subject of bugs, I found another one an hour ago:

TurboTax gives a home DEPRECIATION credit for a business that started and stopped in 2004. In my case the home day care that my wife had started 1/12/2004 and ended 4/2/2004. I entered this information in the TT interview and TurboTax calculated a home depreciation credit of $119. The IRS contacted me today and told me that I can't claim this credit. Since you will probably ASSUME I did something wrong here too, and that your "perfect" software is doing everything correctly, let me refer to you IRS Publication 946.

On page 6 under EXCEPTED PROPERTY, it states this

"Even if the requirements explained in the preceding discussions are met, you cannot depreciated the following property.

Property placed in service and disposed of in the same year."

Here TurboTax is clearly violating this rule for my situation. This is a bug AND the problem stated earlier is a bug as well; and you will find this out when home business customers come back to you to get their guaranteed reimbursement checks because the IRS audited and fined them.

In my case TaxCut does all calculations correctly and covers all details, so I will use them from now on. On the other hand TurboTax ignores IRS rules and does not handle all of the pertinent details in special situations. I already returned TT to the store and exchanged it for TaxCut. Best tax decision I ever made.

This was my first year doing taxes for myself. I've always been skeptical about using software to get them done, so I usually pay too much to a CPA to do them for me. After a lot of encouragement from friends I decided to give this a try. Other than some ESPP sales, my return was pretty simple. I bought the Premier version.

What I liked:

- Nice interview process. Of course, it helped that I had prior year returns that had been prepared by a professional, so I kind of knew what the questions meant.
- Easy import of W2 and 1099 information.
- A check to make sure the return contained no errors.
- Online support from Intuit was very prompt.

Some things I would have liked to see:

- There's a screen where it tells you how much you can contribute to a Roth IRA, but it doesn't put the information on the instruction sheet when you print the return for filing. That would be useful.

Bugs that I encountered:

Basically lots of printing-related bugs.
- When I tried to print from the file->print menu, and asked it to print a return for filing, it only printed the federal return. I had to go to the "print" tab and print return for filing to PDF, and then it printed both federal and state.
- I had the same problem when using the file->print menu to print a copy of the returns and worksheets for personal records. So I just printed the federal portion using this.
- The method for printing the copy for records (including worksheets) to pdf was not as straightforward as when printing the return for filing. I couldn't figure it out so I used Intuit's online support. However, even thought I followed the instructions from them, I found that it did not print all of the worksheets. I contacted them about this and was told to just print to paper. So I have to live without a pdf copy of my return containing all the worksheets.

Using TurboTax Premier for Mac was frustrating. First, the program imported my information from Quicken, but the values did not match up with what the federal government was looking for, so I had to reenter everything. The program did not import my stock sales, which was one of the most time consuming aspects of my tax return.

Big complaint #1: The program frequently does not remember what you entered when you go back to edit an entry, such as business expense details or stock sale details. Just to make a small change you have to reenter a lot of information.

Big complaint #2: The program does not calculate stock wash sales correctly. Vanguard calculated it correctly on their form, and I was able to make the adjustment in the program. However, because of complaint #1, when I edited the wash sale, the wash sale flag got reset back to a regular sale, but there was no visual indicator that this changed. The flag is only visible in one of these obscure helper forms buried deep inside the program. I did not notice the error until after I submitted the return, so I will have to mail in an amended return.

The program has numerous other usability problems. I doubt that many people who lack significant computer skills would be able to fill out anything more than the most basic tax return using this program. For people submitting basic tax returns, you can do this electronically for free by going through the IRS Web site. The income restrictions on free Web filing were apparently lifted this year.

One good thing to say about this program is that it was better than TaxCut was for me last year. The program also looks nice and I got my purchase rebates promptly from Intuit.

Intuit has been in this business for a long time. You would think by now they would have figured out how to write a decent program. I really wish Intuit would improve the quality of their software.

Big drop off in quality this year (Turbo Tax Premier). I've been using TT for many years now and this is the first year where they haven't improved upon the product, as a matter of fact, it's a big step backwards. Looks like they're trying to cut costs by consolidating the desktop and online versions into one product interface. Next year, for the first time, I'll be taking a look at the other tax programs. Wake up Intuit!!!

Turbotax premier 2004 has a problem that their reps won't admit to. Only one person a TurboTax agreed that theres a problem. This is despite the fact the the IRS themselves told me the TurboTax is not doing the right calculations.

My wife started and ended a home daycare in 2004, however TurboTax forces you to enter the mortgage interest paid on the home for the entire year, eventhough IRS rules for 8829 AND TT instructions itself say you have to prorate all indirect and business expenses for the months you actually had the business. TT has no problems doing this for Real Estate taxes however for some reason it does not let you prorate mortgage interest. If you enter in the prorated value yourself, then TT will calculate your full mortgage interest on Schedule A incorrectly. If you enter the amount of allowable mortgage interest deductible on schedule A, then TT will go back to your form 8829 and make the business portion of mortgage expenses incorrect.

You can always override the values with the CORRECT ones, however if you do this you can't E-file. Meaning you either have to live with a smaller refund (60% smaller in my case), or file manually.

I called TurboTax, and she rep was unable to determine if it was a bug with the software, though she tried to deny it. I was on the phone for 3 hours with her. At least she was nice enough not to charge me $9.99.

Intuit really dropped the ball this year with their tax software. They label their software "business", however, it only handles basic situations. Their software is way too restrictive to handle special situations (Like part year businesses). What TaxCut does right TurboTax does wrong, What TurboTax does right, TaxCut does wrong. There is no other option other than accepting a smaller refund, or efile and not get all the refund you are entiled too. I see why so many small business owners get audited using crap software like this. At least these programs calculate the state refunds correctly, but then again state returns are so easy, my 4 year old can do it.

AVOID TURBOTAX IF YOU STARTED AND STOPPED A HOME BUSINESS FOR PART OF THE YEAR IN 2004.

Oh yeah and to the TurboTax VP who ASSUMED I did something wrong. FYI, I did enter my mortgage interest in the right area. I can READ instructions, unlike you who apparantly did not understand my issue. When the program asked me for INDIRECT Home office expenses it asks for my entire home mortgage interest, but the IRS themselves and instructions clearly state to prorate this for part year businesses. Which was my case with my wive's home day care. TT lets you prorate it however, the software takes ANY amount you enter in home mortgage interest and assumes that is what you paid for the entire year; you find this out after you are directed to itemized deductions (Schedule A) is asks you for your entire year mortgage interest. This field is pre populated with the PRO RATED mortgage interest form 8829. However when I type over that value with the full year amount, the TT software then takes this FULL amount and puts it back on form 8829. The software does the correct calculations when I prorate real estate taxes, why can't it do the same with mortgage intrest? Why can't you just admit your software has a bug? IT DOES NOT ACCOUNT FOR PART YEAR BUSINESSES WHEN IT ASKS FOR YOUR MORTGAGE INTEREST PERIOD.

I spent 3 hours on the phone yesterday with TT support and we walked through the interview multiple times and we recreated the problem on EVERY occassion. Even the nice lady I was working with AGREED that there is a problem here. Maybe you should spend a day at customer service and walk through customer issues, or better yet try this yourself to see what I am talking about, instead of always assuming the customer is WRONG.

Since we are on the subject of bugs in your software, I found another one an hour ago:

TurboTax incorrectly gives me a home DEPRECIATION credit for the day care that my wife started and stopped in 2004. IRS rules state that no home deprciation credit can be claimed for businesses that started and stopped in the same year. Since you will probally ASSUME I did something wrong here as well, let me direct you to IRS publication 946: "you cannot take a deduction for depreciation on an asset placed in service and taken out of service in the same tax year." (Pub 946, Page 6 under 'Excepted Property'). I'm glad I caught this before I filed my return, (can you say AUDIT?). I will use TaxCut from now on. In fact I already returned TurboTax to the store and exchanged it for TaxCut, which blows your software out the water.

Intuit tech support is useless! Can't get direct responses by e-mail. Can't find out how to get through by phone. Considering the potential personal financial ramifications that can result from problems with the software, THEIR LACK OF TECHNICAL SUPPORT IS CRIMINALLY APPALING! Do not buy this software!