Best tax software?

March 19, 2016 5:55 AM

Been using Block for years but am attracted to Turbo. Any recommendations, especially if you've used both?

In 2015 we had W2 and 1099 income (requiring schedule C-EZ), home mortgage, no major medical expenses.
I'm open to the lesser brands (e.g. TaxAct, Tax Slayer) but Block & Turbo seem to get higher ratings. PC Mag in particular likes Turbo. Your thoughts?

posted by LonnieK to Work & Money (15 answers total)

I prefer TaxAct to TurboTax because TaxAct doesn't _require_ an online registration. I use the inexpensive buy-at-the-store disk (DVD) versions.

Either works fine, in my experience (barring a major software rewrite, which seems very unlikely). Both can take longer than you'd want to change from screen to screen -- I'm guessing there's some very clumsy and awkward processing going on internally.

We used TurboTax for _years_ but got very annoyed with it and switched to TaxAct.

We've done home mortgage, W2 and 1099s, sole proprietorship, etc. with both. I think I even took an education deduction one year.
posted by amtho at 6:10 AM on March 19, 2016

I've used TurboTax for a very long time (decades, even?). One year, I tried Block instead, and it was acceptable, but less good than Turbo. I've used Turbo every year since, though I will admit that this might be inertia and experience more than any substantive differences.

Frankly, doing one's taxes is an unpleasant exercise, and the software is not the reason why. I'd recommend not overthinking this decision; no software is going to make the process significantly better.
posted by JMOZ at 6:18 AM on March 19, 2016

Having used the online versions of both, I prefer TurboTax. That's purely a UI/UX thing, I think they're basically the same otherwise.

However, TurboTax has moved Schedule C (including C-EZ) so it's available only in their most expensive product, which, as far as I'm concerned, is just price-gouging. Schedule C is not worth paying double. (The first year they did this, it was the difference between free and $80 for me. That was the year I used H&R Block. Last year H&R Block charged as well and I did my taxes by hand, which for someone who rents and has no children is easy enough, though tedious.)

tl;dr I'd decide on price.
posted by hoyland at 6:23 AM on March 19, 2016

I've enjoyed using Turbo (for very simple returns), but now that I don't use my account because my husband does our taxes, they send me a bajillion emails, starting in December.
posted by Night_owl at 6:37 AM on March 19, 2016

I decide on price, which led me to Tax Slayer. I feel like Turbo Tax throws in a lot of stuff that I don't need, where Tax Slayer is more just get your taxes done.
posted by COD at 6:42 AM on March 19, 2016

I caught that little trick re Schedule C that TurboTax pulled.
One related question: Do any of them simply let you insert profit/loss from business without going thru their interview questions for Schedule C? (We did C-EZ on paper, early, to calculate some retirement investment.)
posted by LonnieK at 6:45 AM on March 19, 2016

You know, just doing it on paper might not be _that_ bad. I did my state taxes on the paper forms last year, and it might actually be faster to just use the paper forms for federal taxes, too -- especially if they're the same forms as last year (i.e., no major changes), so you can use the previous year's returns as a guide. It might even be faster.

Moving the schedule C to the expensive product for TurboTax is quite annoying. It's not that complex.
posted by amtho at 7:21 AM on March 19, 2016

TurboTax lets you toggle from interview mode to forms mode, where it pulls up the tax form in question and allows you to enter information directly if you prefer.
posted by misterbrandt at 8:11 AM on March 19, 2016

TurboTax lets you toggle from interview mode to forms mode, where it pulls up the tax form in question and allows you to enter information directly if you prefer.

TaxAct does this as well. I've been using it for the past 15 or so years and have never had a problem, including screen transition delays.
posted by davcoo at 8:32 AM on March 19, 2016

I switched to TaxAct as well precisely because of the Turbo Tax funny business on Schedule C. Haven't regretted it a bit.
posted by ktkt at 10:06 AM on March 19, 2016

I've been using FreeTaxUSA this year (disclaimer: haven't finished filing yet) which is, as its name implies, free for federal returns. They make money off filing state returns, which I plan to do by hand. It's not so much a tax prep software as a tax prep AID though; I have several years' experience doing my simple taxes by hand, so it's a step up for me. And it's really not too hard! I filed schedule C by hand the first year I did my taxes (first summer internship during college was a contracting job).
posted by serelliya at 10:11 AM on March 19, 2016

I have used taxact for several years. This year, schedule D required an upgrade from their $15 to $25 (both one state included) product. It is still cheaper than their larger competitors.

I am a registered user. They do about one nag email a month starting in September or so. Lowest price ($15) seemed to be around Thanksgiving.

It is easy to go from interview to forms and back.
posted by hexatron at 11:21 AM on March 19, 2016

I hate tax software. I hate the interview questions. My mind just doesn't work that way. I do my taxes myself and use FreeFile. Also, my state doesn't have income tax, so that helps.
posted by Altomentis at 1:13 PM on March 19, 2016

As a bunch of others say, TurboTax's change in pricing switched me to TaxAct last year and I used it again this year. Yes I believe, you can enter data without the interview steps.
posted by humboldt32 at 1:22 PM on March 19, 2016

Turbo seems to have a better UI, but the times I have dabbled with it for comparison's sake it was not as accurate as TaxCut (H&R Block).
posted by getawaysticks at 9:26 AM on March 20, 2016