Deluxe – for regular 1040 returns with home mortgage interest and charitable deductions.Basic – for simple tax returns with no itemized deductions.Turbo Tax has 5 versions of its product, plus its online applications. You might pay a little more for Turbo Tax to get that service, but it’s there when you need it so don’t be afraid to use it.

You can tell her you’ve got a number on line 53 but it really belongs on line 29 but you can’t figure out how to make it work and she’ll guide you through it. You call the phone number and you get to talk to an Enrolled Agent who understands tax issues and the Turbo Tax software. Second, one thing that Turbo Tax does well is that they have real people who can answer your questions. I asked her, “Why didn’t you change it like I told you to?” “Because Turbo Tax wouldn’t let me,” she said.ĭealing with that problem: First, you need to know that “Turbo Tax wouldn’t let me,” is not an acceptable excuse in Tax Court. She had received a notice from the IRS stating that she wasn’t allowed to claim that $4,000 tax credit I had warned her about. Anyway, a few months later she was in my office again. Granted, she wasn’t going to get that big refund she was expecting, but her return would have been right. I explained the problem and where the $4,000 needed to go. That was wrong the $4,000 belonged someplace else. (I charge a fee for that but it’s much cheaper than paying me to do your taxes for you.) One year, I reviewed a woman’s return and she had put a $4,000 tax credit on her return. For example: one of the things I do is review tax returns that people have prepared for themselves before they send them to the IRS. Problem number 1: “The program won’t let me…” This is the one I hear most often, “The program won’t let me change the number, it won’t let me delete my neighbor’s child.” Turbo Tax is great when you’re in the act of preparing your taxes, but it’s not as easy to go back in and make a change if you’ve done something wrong and need to correct it. This is just a heads up for people using the number one tax software in America. So when I title this blog post as “Problems With Turbo Tax”, you’re not going to find an exposé of all things bad with the company. I have worked for one of their competitors – and I still like Turbo Tax better. I even seriously considered going to work for the company.

I used to tell people that I’d do TV commercials for it. Working on your own taxes can be frustrating no matter what software program you’re using.įirst, full disclosure: I love Turbo Tax.

Turbo tax software for 2017