Comments on: Compared: Four online tax filing services

Why hire an accountant if you can file your taxes yourself? We take a look at four prominent online tax preparation services to find the best for you.

[MSTinPA]

Don - thank you for this great review of these online tax preparation tools. I have used TaxCut for the last few years and filed my 2008 taxes with TaxCut online last weekend. While I wish this review had been available to me a few weeks ago, it was still a helpful read and I will consider my options again next year depending on the complexities 2009 brings to my tax situation.

[jsibelius]

TurboTax doesn't charge everyone for e-filing state taxes. I only paid the $25.95 to do my state tax return. E-filing was free. This was the first year I used the free federal filing. In the past, I've always used the more complicated forms and gone through all the questions, and while it did take a long time, I was confident that I hadn't left anything out and I really was getting everything exactly right.

[Posey2sum]

I found free efile for both Federal and AZ State on Arizona.gov/government/online services/Revenue Dept of/Payment of Personal Taxes with a link to Intuit Tax Freedom Project SM. Works for incomes under 30K, Active Military, and those who qualify for EIC. This is a Turbo Tax Product, but appears to be different from Turbo Tax Online

[repete_7]

Through the IRS, you can also use FreeFile (lower income) or FreeFile Fillable Forms (all incomes, but you have to know what you're doing).

State of Virginia offers free iFile (all incomes) at http://www.tax.virginia.com .

[drno7]

Actually, on TaxAct federal is free and the state costs you $13.95

[atish505]

Your chances of getting audited are higher if you e-file vs. the same return on paper. E-filing data is is used by several trigger programs (software) that determine if a return should be short listed of audit.

That process takes lot more time and effort on part of IRS and FTB.

[SueDN]

I disagree that TaxAct is best for someone who hasn't sold any investments in the past year. I have used it for the past 2 years and have had to input several stock sales, and it has filled out Schedule D for me perfectly. The only thing I don't like about TaxAct is that it seems slow to save info and go on to the next screen. I do like the price, though.

[abcd9009]

File California Tax Return Online for FREE (no income limit) - https://webapp.ftb.ca.gov/calfile/

It's not as comprehensive as TurboTax but can't beat FREE for simple State Return.

[sbruce45]

I hope when you say that TaxAct is good if you don't sell any investments, you only mean that they don't lead you through the details as well, since TaxAct certainly handles selling investments properly.

I am wondering what was the situation(s) in which TurboTax resulted in your tax liability being $1000 less, and what allowed that to happen. Was it that the others did not handle some situation, or they handled it differently so that you owed more tax, or that the others just did not ask you about something that you could have entered if you knew to do it. Was most of it due to one situation, or was it spread of various situations? I know that they handle the tax on state refunds differently, and that they handle foreign taxes paid differently. What was the situation resulting in owing $1000 less in taxes?

[polis12]

This is the first article from Don that I actually thought was useful.

[markdoiron]

I stopped using TurboTax several years ago when the rules for military retirement pay changed in Oklahoma. TurboTax would only deduct $10K from the taxable amount, rather than the full amount of military retirement income ($33k). When I called up their tech support, the gentleman was most insistent that TurboTax could not help me to resolve my "tax question." He absolutely refused to believe that there could be a problem in their software--it was obviously the user's problem. I went to FreeTaxUSA and got the correct tax calculated-- $1700 saved on my ***state*** return alone from that one "user mistake!" I've been there ever since, but I wonder how many retired GIs were overtaxed by TurboTax's refusal to properly incorporate an update from the state (I even provided them the text of the original notification from the state tax office that they e-mail to me)? --mark d.

[abcd9009]

Just to give my 2 cents... Since all (or at least most) of online tax return apps are FREE to start, it's worth spending some extra time to run your numbers from all of them and whoever gives you the largest return + lowest fee, efile from them.
As @markdoiron points out, I doubt any one tax software is perfect for everyone. Since these softwares are designed for mass audience there is bound to be something missing in every software to suit everyone especially for filing State returns.
For the past 3 years, I always start off my tax return using TurboTax online, TaxCut online, and TaxAct online but usually end up efiling with TaxAct online since it's the cheapest and yes it does handle investments pretty well but doesn't have the deductions as indepth as TurboTax. I can now add FreeTaxUSA and TaxSlayer to my list.

[Eludium-Q36]

Contrary to Don's limited survey, I've always found TaxCut to be superior to TurboTax both in value and ease of use. One of the problems with your survey is that you didn't discuss the service's storage of your return for ease-of-import the following year. TaxAct doesn't offer that, you have to start from scratch every year. This becomes very important when you've got stock losses for instance (and who doesn't) that you can carry from year to year.

One of the problems us readers have with Don R is that he's grossly biased and in this case biased for TurboTax and apparently after only one survey. Your analysis, Don, would carry more weight if you surveyed/used these products year after year, but you assert a ridiculous bias towards one product after only one limited survey! Is ANYBODY over at Cnet giving you guidance ?!

[ElizabethMoressi]

Thanks for the tax application tips.

I took a quick ride on all 4 to see for myself, and I have to agree that TaxCut seemed more capable of handling my ever-increasing complex depreciation schedule year-to-year.

Hey did anyone notice the Green Url Bars-- they all have Extended Validation SSL certification. Always a bonus when you're sharing your world of personal/financial info.

[dedlnr]

I used TaxAct for Wisconsin a few years ago and discovered that the program allowed a tuition deduction of up to $5,000. The state income tax booklet, and state tax help staff, clearly stated the deduction was $3,000 maximum. I called TaxAct to tell them about their problem. Their response? "Go ahead and file, and if you get caught, we will pay the fine." I'm sorry, but I won't do business with a company that knows it has a problem with its product and won't correct it and then encourages customers to cheat! Maybe the president of TaxAct back then is now running that peanut company that knowingly shipped tainted food!?

[jmack1848]

Overlooked 1 item. "FreetaxUSA". Low income earners, FREE, it is. When finished, with State file, all the frills, including a CD mailed priority, the cost is at the big outfits starting costs, that get close to a personal CPA, with all their frills.

TaxAct also has a downloadable version that runs on your PC without having to have an internet connection open. In contradiction to what a previous poster claimed, it also allows importing of the previous year's data which considerably shortens the time needed to file! I've used this program for several years for my income involving wages, investments, and small business and have found it very friendly.

I used the downloadable version of Tax Cut this year, after having bought TurboTax for several years (I was unwilling to pay the drastically increased price this year.) So I don't know if it is included in the free online version, but I was pleasantly surprised at the end of the Federal and State forms to be asked if I would like a printout of the answers I would need to complete a FAFSA form, my next task. Yes, the FAFSA tells you what lines to find the information on, but it was handy to have the information I needed from my son's 1040 and my own all on a single sheet.

[drcrui]

I agree with SueDN that TaxAct does Form D very well. I have used TaxAct for three years now on fairly complex returns (13 pages including passive income and K1's). I run TaxAct on LINUX with the Firefox browser. As far as I'm aware, TaxAct is the only income tax software that works under Linux.