TurboTax Online Income Tax Preparation Software Review

By Pinyo, on February 10, 2009

The other day I was wondering if I owe any income tax this year, so I decided to give Intuit TurboTax Online Federal Free software a try.  In general, I was impressed at how far online software industry has evolved over the years (not just Intuit’s).  For this 2008 tax year software, you could hardly tell that you are working with a tax preparation software that is shown through a web browser.

My First Impression Of TurboTax Online

When I first signed up, I was immediately impressed by the well-designed user interface.  It’s very clean, intuitive, and organized.  The software does an excellent job of getting me started and moving in the right direction. I have to say that the interface is even better than desktop tax software from a few years ago.

However, my tax situation is rather complicated due to my web business, investment capital gains & losses, and itemized deductions.  As such, I wasn’t able to enjoy the Free edition for long before TurboTax recommended that I upgrade to the Basic Edition ($14.95), then to the Deluxe Edition ($29.95), and finally to the Premiere Edition ($49.95).  The software even suggested that I upgrade to the Business Edition ($74.95), which I declined.  Fortunately, I am not obligate to pay for any of these upgrades, or the State software that costs additional $34.95 until I print out my tax returns or file them online through efile.

Although I think the software is excellent and I absolutely love the online support forums, I will most likely end up buying either TurboTax Premier Federal + State + eFile 2008 ($64.99) or H&R Block TaxCut 2008 Premium Federal + State + e-file ($43.99) from Amazon.com. This is mainly due to the higher fees and one tax return per user account limitation.

I really can’t figure out why the online version is more expensive than the desktop version.

TurboTax Online Tax Software Comparison

Here’s a comparison chart of different editions of the TurboTax Online tax preparation software:

TurboTax Online Pluses

• The account set up process is very easy.
• The user interface is excellent.  It’s user-friendly and very organized.
• You can easily upgrade to the product that fits your unique tax situation the best
• Awesome online support forums, aka. Live Community.  I think it’s worth signing up for the online software and upgrade just to gain access to these forums for tax help and advice.
• 24/7 access from any computer, any where.
  

TurboTax Online Minuses

• You could easily get carried away with all the upgrades and add-ons.
• Strange pricing structure that could cost you more money than you expected.
• You can only file one tax return per user account.

Conclusion

Since TurboTax Online software is free to try, I highly recommend that you give it a test drive and see if you like it.  If it doesn’t work well for you, don’t print or efile your taxes and you won’t have to pay. If the software meets your needs, just finish up your tax returns with them.

In case you are curious about my situation, it looks like I’ll have to open a SEP IRA to avoid owing the IRS money, because we didn’t have enough federal income tax withheld.  Although I could pay the few hundred dollars, I want to keep my self employment safe harbor and avoid paying quarterly estimated taxes. Luckily, my state and local income tax refund will help partially fund the SEP IRA.

Read more about

Get free updates

    via Twitter
    via Facebook
    via RSS or Email

Share this article

• 
• 
• 
• 
• Share

Pinyo is the brain behind Moolanomy personal finance blog and a few other web sites. If you like this article, please subscribe for free daily email updates.

All posts by Pinyo

Please share your comment:

Comment Rules: Constructive criticism is welcomed. Please use your PERSONAL name or initials and not your business name or URL, as the latter comes off like spam and I'll most likely delete your comment. Have fun and thanks for adding to the conversation! Here's our comment policy and guidelines.

1 blogs that link to this article:

If your trackback does not show in 24 hours, please resend to this trackback URI.

1. This Week at the Blog Carnival | Real Words