TurboTax... No more..
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This will be the last year I use Turbotax. I have used their product much longer than I care to remember. This year, I picked up a copy at Staples like I do each year. Finally got all my taxes done (yes, close to the deadline as usual, at least this year I did not have to file an extention) and started to file them electronically. I noticed the fee was raised from $9.95 for each (federal and state) to $16.95. Wow, that was bad enough, until I discovered they have now dropped the free filing of the federal return which they use to include with the product. Ouch, $33.90 just to e-file them! Guess it is time to check out what competition is like. I may need to spend out of an accountant next year anyway (that will be a lot more), but it is a shame greed has taken them over to this point.
Rocky <>< Latest Code Blog Post: OpenID - More thought - Great system if.. Latest Tech Blog Post: Frustrated Total Internal Reflection-FTIR = Cool!
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This will be the last year I use Turbotax. I have used their product much longer than I care to remember. This year, I picked up a copy at Staples like I do each year. Finally got all my taxes done (yes, close to the deadline as usual, at least this year I did not have to file an extention) and started to file them electronically. I noticed the fee was raised from $9.95 for each (federal and state) to $16.95. Wow, that was bad enough, until I discovered they have now dropped the free filing of the federal return which they use to include with the product. Ouch, $33.90 just to e-file them! Guess it is time to check out what competition is like. I may need to spend out of an accountant next year anyway (that will be a lot more), but it is a shame greed has taken them over to this point.
Rocky <>< Latest Code Blog Post: OpenID - More thought - Great system if.. Latest Tech Blog Post: Frustrated Total Internal Reflection-FTIR = Cool!
I used to use TaxAct, which for a single person is pretty good. Trying to figure out where everything is between my fiancee and myself for the future was more difficult. The price is still half that of turbo-tax, including efile if you so choose. This year federal was free (included), and state I filed through the state's free service, so the total cost, including software, was 18.95.
_________________________ Asu no koto o ieba, tenjo de nezumi ga warau. Talk about things of tomorrow and the mice in the ceiling laugh. (Japanese Proverb)
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I used to use TaxAct, which for a single person is pretty good. Trying to figure out where everything is between my fiancee and myself for the future was more difficult. The price is still half that of turbo-tax, including efile if you so choose. This year federal was free (included), and state I filed through the state's free service, so the total cost, including software, was 18.95.
_________________________ Asu no koto o ieba, tenjo de nezumi ga warau. Talk about things of tomorrow and the mice in the ceiling laugh. (Japanese Proverb)
Makes me appreciate our tax office a bit more. Here the ATO (Australian Tax Office) provides free tax software from their website that helps you do the tax and provides automatic (and free) lodgement. Bit scary, but now the tax office now provides a feature in this software that automatically fills in the interest and dividend parts of your form from data provided from banks / companies.
Peter "Until the invention of the computer, the machine gun was the device that enabled humans to make the most mistakes in the smallest amount of time."
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Makes me appreciate our tax office a bit more. Here the ATO (Australian Tax Office) provides free tax software from their website that helps you do the tax and provides automatic (and free) lodgement. Bit scary, but now the tax office now provides a feature in this software that automatically fills in the interest and dividend parts of your form from data provided from banks / companies.
Peter "Until the invention of the computer, the machine gun was the device that enabled humans to make the most mistakes in the smallest amount of time."
cp9876 wrote:
Bit scary, but now the tax office now provides a feature in this software that automatically fills in the interest and dividend parts of your form from data provided from banks / companies.
We've had that in America for years - ours is just in dead-tree form. They just haven't got around to actually making it online like that, but they sure as hell know what you owe for the majority of reasons that you'd owe them money. So, most of the game is taking the information provided by your employer and financial people, who've calculated the information as instructed by the IRS and reported it to them, and then telling the IRS about it again. Better hope you don't get it wrong! In all seriousness, I find it astounding how many tax-related documents I have to collect through the last quarter of every year just so that I can fill in all the right forms when tax time comes around. I don't exactly have complicated financials...
"I hope he can see this, because I'm doing it as hard as I can" - Ignignot
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cp9876 wrote:
Bit scary, but now the tax office now provides a feature in this software that automatically fills in the interest and dividend parts of your form from data provided from banks / companies.
We've had that in America for years - ours is just in dead-tree form. They just haven't got around to actually making it online like that, but they sure as hell know what you owe for the majority of reasons that you'd owe them money. So, most of the game is taking the information provided by your employer and financial people, who've calculated the information as instructed by the IRS and reported it to them, and then telling the IRS about it again. Better hope you don't get it wrong! In all seriousness, I find it astounding how many tax-related documents I have to collect through the last quarter of every year just so that I can fill in all the right forms when tax time comes around. I don't exactly have complicated financials...
"I hope he can see this, because I'm doing it as hard as I can" - Ignignot
Our guys have had the data for years as well - all you had to do was to forget and leave off some bank interest or something and you would get a penalty note. The difference is that now the tax office shares the info with us. So when you get to the bank interest section of the form, for example, instead of going through all your paperwork and extracting the interest amounts, you just press a button and a little table appears showing what the tax office knows - each account and the interest paid. Another click and it is in the form. Next year, apparently, the same will work for company dividends. It is also possible to download a table of medical expenses.
Peter "Until the invention of the computer, the machine gun was the device that enabled humans to make the most mistakes in the smallest amount of time."
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This will be the last year I use Turbotax. I have used their product much longer than I care to remember. This year, I picked up a copy at Staples like I do each year. Finally got all my taxes done (yes, close to the deadline as usual, at least this year I did not have to file an extention) and started to file them electronically. I noticed the fee was raised from $9.95 for each (federal and state) to $16.95. Wow, that was bad enough, until I discovered they have now dropped the free filing of the federal return which they use to include with the product. Ouch, $33.90 just to e-file them! Guess it is time to check out what competition is like. I may need to spend out of an accountant next year anyway (that will be a lot more), but it is a shame greed has taken them over to this point.
Rocky <>< Latest Code Blog Post: OpenID - More thought - Great system if.. Latest Tech Blog Post: Frustrated Total Internal Reflection-FTIR = Cool!
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I gave them up after a couple of decades a few years ago. I needed a special form for my mother's estate and I wanted to "upgrade" to get it. The guy on the phone was a shit. Said I bought the wrong one so just tough shit. I hope they miss me. :laugh:
Tim Craig wrote:
I hope they miss me.
:laugh:
Rocky <>< Latest Code Blog Post: OpenID - More thought - Great system if.. Latest Tech Blog Post: Frustrated Total Internal Reflection-FTIR = Cool!
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This will be the last year I use Turbotax. I have used their product much longer than I care to remember. This year, I picked up a copy at Staples like I do each year. Finally got all my taxes done (yes, close to the deadline as usual, at least this year I did not have to file an extention) and started to file them electronically. I noticed the fee was raised from $9.95 for each (federal and state) to $16.95. Wow, that was bad enough, until I discovered they have now dropped the free filing of the federal return which they use to include with the product. Ouch, $33.90 just to e-file them! Guess it is time to check out what competition is like. I may need to spend out of an accountant next year anyway (that will be a lot more), but it is a shame greed has taken them over to this point.
Rocky <>< Latest Code Blog Post: OpenID - More thought - Great system if.. Latest Tech Blog Post: Frustrated Total Internal Reflection-FTIR = Cool!
Rocky Moore wrote:
Guess it is time to check out what competition is like.
I used H&R blocks free software this year. I originally only intended to use it as a sanity check on my math before using one of the free file websites (income under IIRC $52k), but the one I randomly selected from the IRS's list had a UI that would've been bad circa 97 when I first got on the net, and after I spent an hour clicking through came up with a refund total about $40 lower than my paper results or what I got from HRblock's program. Second random selection was just as badly designed and I ended up paying $17 rather than spending another hour with doggy html. State was done via the PA website, which leaves locals to do over the weekend.
-- CleaKO The sad part about this instance is that none of the users ever said anything [about the problem]. Pete O`Hanlon Doesn't that just tell you everything you need to know about users?
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This will be the last year I use Turbotax. I have used their product much longer than I care to remember. This year, I picked up a copy at Staples like I do each year. Finally got all my taxes done (yes, close to the deadline as usual, at least this year I did not have to file an extention) and started to file them electronically. I noticed the fee was raised from $9.95 for each (federal and state) to $16.95. Wow, that was bad enough, until I discovered they have now dropped the free filing of the federal return which they use to include with the product. Ouch, $33.90 just to e-file them! Guess it is time to check out what competition is like. I may need to spend out of an accountant next year anyway (that will be a lot more), but it is a shame greed has taken them over to this point.
Rocky <>< Latest Code Blog Post: OpenID - More thought - Great system if.. Latest Tech Blog Post: Frustrated Total Internal Reflection-FTIR = Cool!
I've used H&R Block's TaxCut for the last 8 years or so. They did the same thing this year eliminating the free federal e-file, and raising the price to $15. Since I owe about $75, I'll just print it and paper-file anyways. On the H&R Block topic though, I refuse to EVER use their tax prep service again. Two years ago I thought, "I just moved, changed jobs, and cashed out 3 retirement plans early (don't even ask); maybe I need some assistance." Bad idea. What you get is a glorified secretary typing into software nearly identical to the TaxCut program. The supposed benefit of their "tax expertise?" Please! The woman that did mine was clueless, made numerous errors (that cost me upwards of $3000 and put me in hot water with the IRS) and suggested I lie in various places and take deductions I had no documentation to prove. To top it off, she talked about nothing but her family history and how long she'd lived in our city. There was no professionalism whatsoever. This was at the main Regional H&R Block store to boot! Let's just say, I'm glad I paid for the extra audit protection service. lol That was 2004 taxes...and I just made my last $750 payment to the IRS to clear things up. X|