Tax Preparation Software for 2003?

Aaron asks: "After last year's debacle with TurboTax's copy protection system, I want to avoid their software (even though they say they won't do it again). But after reading some of the reviews on TaxCut, it sounds a bit buggy. What tax preparation software are people using for their 2003 taxes? I've heard of TaxACT, the free tax software - is that any good? I don't suppose any decent tax software works on Linux..."

Comments

TaxCut

[elmegil]

Kiplinger's Tax Cut even says on the front "no product activation required". Given that TaxCut and TurboTax have been the de facto standards for years, and H&R Block partners with Kiplinger's, it's a no brainer.

frist spot?

Get a pro

[ObviousGuy]

A professinal accountant may cost a little more, but they will usually find ways to reduce your tax burden above and beyond what any software could do.

Re:Get a pro

[OneFix at Work]

Only if you have deductions...unless you have a house, family, investments, etc you won't find a professional any better...

As a general rule, if you qualify for the 1040-EZ, you won't get any real advantage from a professional accountant...

Re:Get a pro

[ObviousGuy]

If you qualify for the 1040-EZ, you really ought to save the thirty bucks and just do it yourself.

TaxAct

[Gildenstern]

I've been using TaxAct since 1998 now. I've never had any problems with it and it seems to work well. It has a very nice interface. I get the 20 dollar version from their website. That gets me the State and Federal versions. I used Turbotax the year before and and this seem almost the same to me.

I don't understand

[MerlynEmrys67]

Company does something bad... People dump bad product - company cleans up act - why do you still want to boycott them.

Personally I will be VERY happy to go back to TurboTax this year - TaxCut sucked horribly and I have liked TurboTax for almost a decade now

Moral of the story - company does what I want them to - I will send my business back to them

Re:I don't understand

[sfjoe]

I had the exact opposite experience. Turbotax worked just fine for me. Intuit became a gang of boneheads last year so I tried TaxCut. TaxCut also worked fine for me and H&R Block has little history of boneheadedness. I'll stick with TaxCut - who knows what the PHBs at Intuit are planning next time around.

Re:I don't understand

[Gzip Christ]

Company does something bad... People dump bad product - company cleans up act - why do you still want to boycott them.

There's an old saying: fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.

Re:I don't understand

[GoofyBoy]

>why do you still want to boycott them.

Because its the strongest thing you can say to future companies.

Marketing guy A: "We should have a really restrictive DRM lock that requires the user to mail a sample of their blood."
Marketing guy B: "Wait a second. Remember the mess TurboTax got into when they did something like that?"

Alternative answer 1:
Marketing guy A: "Yes. But they did it wrong. Look how they are doing now, didn't hurt them in the long run. We can try to introduce it in the sneaky and slow way which owners will accept. Even if its less than sucessful, we can always bounce back like they did."

Alternative answer 2:
Marketing guy A: "You mean from that dead product? The one idea that sank the entire company? Maybe you have a point, I would hate to follow in that company's steps"

Re:I don't understand

[Maple Syrup]

You know ... as much as I'd like to stay away from Turbo Tax to send Intuit a message ... I used TaxCut last year, and it was a truly awful experience.

It's not that TaxCut was buggy, it's just that, unlike Turbo Tax, (where an ordinary human can understand the program's questions) the questions in the TaxCut "interview" were written *by* tax geeks *for* tax geeks.

While my tax situation isn't complex enough to require a paid tax preparer, it's still complex enough to be easy to screw up. There were lots of places in TaxCut where the designers clearly just transcribed the (confusing and difficult) Federal forms, instead of putting the work into simplifying the questions and making them understandable.

Using TaxCut, I had to look over a number of sections *very* *carefully* (read: 45 minutes to go through 3 screens) before I was sure I had entered the data correctly. As it turned out, it was a good thing I did this: I had, in fact initially entered the wrong data, solely due to the the poor design of the interview.

In short: a classic example of poor useability.

Bottom line: this year I'm back with TurboTax.

turbotax via the web.

[reaper20]

Except the fact that it's IE-only I've enjoyed using turbotax's web feature.

I remembers past years and it takes me about 10 minutes to do my taxes. I pay the 15 dollar fee or whatever it is and I have my refund in 2 days. Not bad and I can knock it out the day I get my W2's.

If you drink heavily afterward and try to remind yourself that it's not an ActiveX buttraping waiting to happen you get over it.

Re:turbotax via the web.

[hatless]

I've used Web TurboTax with Netscape/Mozilla browsers 2 of the last 3 years -- with Netscape 4.x under Linux one year, in fact, with no bugs at all. I can't promise it'll still be compatible this year, but it's never been Windows-only or IE-only for me. They might say it only works with IE, but that probably just means they won't give support for other browsers. Give it a try; you don't have to pay until your return is finished and ready for transmittal or printing, and if you make it through the first couple of screens, you're all set.

Tax Act is the bomb

[mcgroarty]

I used TaxAct last year. It's free for Federal, though you want to purchase State. Split the cost with a couple friends if you like -- there's no protection, and one of their engineers actually suggested this (or said he thought many did it) off the record.

It was very easy to use and about as enjoyable as software can get before telling you that you owe a couple hundred bucks to someone. There wasn't any ambiguity -- it explains every step concisely, and even gives some tax saving tips for the coming year when you're through.

I was done in about ten minutes, and didn't feel anything had been unclear or "weird." The interface impressed me enough that I sent some feedback about it. (Least Painful Windows App Ever)

I'm looking forward to using Tax Act again this year; it promises to import last year's data so I should pretty much just have to punch in my W2, some money earned on the side, and then be done with it.

btw -- Anyone tried it with Wine?

Re:Tax Act is the bomb

[cookiepus]

While it's great to hear positive user reviews about the software, I think I am suspicious of the fact that it took you 10 minutes to complete the process. It sounds like you've got a very simple tax case, in which case any software will do fine.

BTW: for simple cases, under certain levels of income (about 25k I think) you can do your taxes for free on TurboTax.com (or could do it in years past, anyway)

Now here's the deal. I was a dependant for half of 2003, but then I got a full time job in May. I was a resident of NYC for half of that year, and half of the year I was not. I have a W2, and some 1099's. Some business expenses. Some charitable donations. I paid for college. I invested in a 401k....

With these more complex tax situations, it's not going to take you 10 minutes to file no matter what software you use. In fact, in the past I noticed that after all the permutations, where was no way that TurboTax and TaxCut agreed on how much my return should be

(I was running TaxCut on the PC and TurboTax on the website, they've got their full version on the website and it's free around to fuck around with, just costs money to file once you're ready)

I believe that last year, TaxCut gave me a better refund. It's just a question of what items of the tax law the software is aware of. I certainly know fuck-all about it. Until Tax Cut asked me whether I had put more miles on my car for business purposes than I did for going to the store (something of that nature anyway) I didn't know that shit would have any relevance to my tax return whatsoever.

If you have a tax situation of any complexity, using the right software makes financial difference. If all you've got is a W2 then you're probably OK using any of them.

I'd like to see some feedback as to who had a good experience with any of these programs when it came to tax nuance.

running on linux

[itwerx]

Registration issues not withstanding, I've had good luck getting TurboTax to run under Wine.
(And besides, they've repented, why keep bitching about it? They do a good job.)

Has it occurred to anyone here...

[slashdot_commentator]

That a tax system that requires spending money on complication-processing software, or having to hire an accountant/tax preparer, is a tax system in dire need of reform?

Re:Has it occurred to anyone here...

[RealityMogul]

Aw, c'mon, it's not that bad. Although I really wish they'd rewrite the 6a question: "If your parents can claim you then do not check box C.

Would it really be that hard to rewrite the command as "Check box C if you finally moved out of your parent's basement.".

I know they learned their lesson

[mpechner]

I had dinner with someone who is a salesman in Intuit. They absolutely will not pull crap like that again. They know they lost a lot of business to Tax Cut and will be working to get those customers back this year. No Worries.

Be lucky that you're not german

[datalife]

In Germany we got 205 laws and approx. 96 000 regulations dealing only with taxes.
You definitely need a pro AND a programm, if you want to save money.

A side node:
60 % of the world tax literature is written in german for Germany.
It seems as we invented the damn thing!

Re:Another reason to use Windows

[Trelane]

I'd also love and pay well (up to 2x the price of windoze software!) to be able to get a copy of quality Linux tax software.

What would be interesting is if someone made a FOSS project that did everything but the specializations inherent between state and federal [and potentially other countries]. It'd then be up to a legally certified group to provide files [strucured with XML?] that provides the list of specializations (e.g. what counts as a deduction, the various worksheets, etc.).

There is a common theme between all the components; someone could start such a project. Then one would plunk down money for your specialization files, since they have to be prepared every year. However, this completely avoids the cost of software development for the tax specialist.

It could work

I've used TaxCut for years

[BoomerSooner]

I use it for my Federal & State and my Business (S-Corp) Federal & State. It's very easy to use and is a first class piece of software. 5 years in a row now for me. My accountant charges me around $1200 to do all those filings where I paid $145 for TaxCut. Plus, they offer to pay your penalties & interest if there is a miscalculation that causes a problem with your return! Now that is standing behind your product.

Re:Another reason to use Windows

[GCP]

I think you're dramatically underestimating the business logic involved in a tax program. How many rule sets can you think of that are as convoluted and byzantine as the US Federal Tax Code? You're dismissing the hard stuff with the wave of a hand and then focusing on the easy stuff. (Except for the liability part, which you correctly identify as a huge issue.)

And even with a small army of testers, so many issues still slip past QA that the first thing TurboTax does when you start it up is look for new patches. Yes, I've written custom spreadsheet functions that will apply the basic tax bracket ladder algorithm to your gross salary. But that isn't even scratching the surface.

And every time the tax laws change (e.g. at least every year), a lot of that logic has to be updated and tested some more.

Just consider the money TurboTax brings in. Half of the US buys it, and then buys it again *every year*. If it were as easy as you seem to believe, why wouldn't every company that could afford liability insurance get into that game?