In which Turbotax sucks harder

[unixronin]

Mainly as a result of a massive price increase that not only de facto charges everyone now for electronic filing whether you use it or not, but you now get charged extra for each additional return beyond the first — even to print and mail.

With luck, this is Intuit jumping the shark.

Comments

[laurarey.livejournal.com]

My accountant requests that I use QuickBooks Pro for my business taxes and books.

I have quickly learned to despise it. It is bloated, non-intuitive, and periodically does odd things that I cannot explain.

If I didn't have to use it, I wouldn't. You have my sympathies.

[otherbill.livejournal.com]

To paraphrase Joe Piscopo, we used TurboTax once...once.

I started by filling out the tax forms by hand (for a baseline). In comparison, TurboTax didn't find us any additional deductions, and in fact claimed we weren't entitled to one particular deduction when I was certain that we were. As a result, blindly trusting the software would've cost us money.

(Well, cost us more money—we'd already wasted money on the software, after all.)

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For our state tax forms, we can download PDFs off the state Dept.o'Rev. website. Not only do these PDFs have user-editable forms, but much of the arithmetic is calculated automatically.

Once the IRS reaches that point, I think demand for tax software will drop sharply.

[novel-tharkun.livejournal.com]

At least for the base 1040 forms the IRS pdfs are editable, I don't believe they do the math for you, as yet.

Unfortunately my state isn't savvy enough to actually produce editable pdfs, so I'm stuck with buying a product of sorts or a type-writer. (My handwriting is atrocious.)

[argonel.livejournal.com]

Intuit is still in business? I have refused to touch their software for years. Specifically I stopped uding when they added DRM to the tax software that caused a number of different problems. This pissed me off to the point where not only did I switch to Taxcut, I also dumped my pirated copy of Quicken and bought a copy of Microsoft money. They were bad enough that not only did I go to their competition, I voluntarily gave money to Microsoft.

[radarrider.livejournal.com]

I've used Tax Cut online the last two years and it's worked fine. Our tax situation isn't that complex, in fact we could probably do it by hand without too much trouble, but it's nice to be guided through it and have the computer do the math.

[http://users.livejournal.com/crossfire_/]

They jumped the shark when they accidentally directed people to call the phone sex number back in 04.

[lizzibabe.livejournal.com]

If you meet certain qualifications, you may be allowed to file your return online directly for free using a gateway from the IRS website.

[wyrdling.livejournal.com]

yeah, i stopped last year when i realized there was no way to do the (promised by the govt.) free tax filing for free based upon the way they set it up. think i moved to H&R block... which was reasonable.

Price changes

[felinecanine.livejournal.com]

At least this part has been fixed:

http://turbotax.intuit.com/support/kb/buying-and-billing/billing-and-charges/6651.html

The pricing structure for filing individual (1040) returns in TurboTax desktop 2008 products changed on the afternoon of December 11, 2008.

TurboTax customers can now e-file up to five federal tax returns, the limit set by the IRS, and prepare and print unlimited returns at no additional cost. We will soon release an update to remove this screen, which reflected the old pricing structure.

In the meantime, simply click the Start now, Pay When You File button to proceed. Rest assured that you will not be charged $9.95 to print or efile your return once we release the update, which is expected to ready no later than December 20.

If you would like to print a filing copy of your return, please hold off until we release the update to avoid being charged. You can print a review copy free of charge at any time by selecting the second option Forms to review or keep for your records in the Print dialog box.

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Nice to see that public outcry has some effect.