Alaskan Apple Users Group Blog

Product: TurboTax for Home and Business
Company: Intuit
Contact: Click here
Price: $74.95
Pros: easy to use, brings in last years return and Quicken data, great support, free efile
Cons: none
Product Rating: Excellent
Author: Gary Miller, AAUG Member

Conflict of interest disclosure: Intuit TurboTax provided a free copy of TurboTax for Home and Business to me for the purposes of the review.

TurboTax just keeps getting better, easier and more thorough, and affordable, only $74.95, downloadable or get a CD. I chose Home and Business edition because I wanted to see it’s skill on a business, it passed with flying colors.

I used a CD version, just drag and drop to install, it quickly installed, and asked me if I had used TurboTax last year, I did, and then it downloaded updates, meaning new tax forms, new questions to assist me in completing my forms.

Wanting to know what’s new this year, TurboTax now has the ability to double checks, offers free direct deposit to a reloadable VISA card, now it uses flags versus last years bookmarks which I didn’t like, and integration with Apple’s Spotlight search, yea.

Using TurboTax is a no brainer if you value your time and money. Use Quicken, then it easily imports in your data, and same for most banks, securities firms, so it goes fast. All that it doesn’t do, is make sense of all your paperwork, but it does help you organize by good questions,and easy way to look up tax info from the US Govt. Or use the Live Community, that is a group of fellow filers like us, who also are working through their returns. It’s searchable. Want specific Tax help, then for $14.95, you can dial a tax expert that works for Intuit and they will answer as many questions as you have. I didn’t try that, but assume that’s great deal. Alaskans don’t have state taxes yet, so I didn’t use that included feature. I also like that TurboTax has a feedback feature to use at any time, or at the end when you’re either happy or not with your return.

New to using a software program like TurboTax, then you’ll love the guides, in simple English. I liked the ease of the questions. When I was done, the Audit Meter suggested areas I might have overstepped. That was helpful. All in all, a great tool for your taxes. And if you don’t have a business, TurboTax has a free online version too: