I used to use Turbo Tax but for the past few years I've used Turbo Tax for the Web. Works essentially the same but now its online-based. Never have to worry about having up-to-date forms and electronic submission is easier than ever. I'd still recommend the CD version if that's your thing.
I've found TaxCut to be much more helpful (for me) than TurboTax. I used TaxCut for the first time last year and love it. Also, TaxCut is programmed by H&R Block and all they do is taxes.
I've done taxes as a volunteer for VITA (volunteer income tax assistance) and would say that if you want a second pair of eyes to go over your return (always a good idea and mandatory for the VITA folks), then find out where VITA will be in your neighborhood. This service is totally free. Just realize these people won't do your tax return if your return is too complex (real estate income or mucho equity trading, etc.).
Intuit blows when it comes to Mac software. Not to mention there is supposedly spyware in some of their products (which I can't confirm, but I wouldn't be surprised).
I use H&R Block TaxCut for my taxes. Like any tax program it is a but unwieldy in spots, but I've found it a relatively painless and inexpensive way to do my taxes right.
There was 'spyware' in last years product to deter doing your taxes and passing the disc to a friend so they could do theirs who in turn passes it to someone who does theirs etc. etc.
There was such an uproar intuit took it out of the program for this year.
I bough taxcut last year due to the spyware and promptly exchanged it for turbotax, spyware or no...
I hated taxcut, it sucked plain and simple. I would click on a highlighted term i didn't really understand and the thing would give me to a help file that didn't have any info.
On another note. The question asks what the best tax software is, but is there really anything but turbotax and taxcut?
It wasn't "spyware" that was added to Turbo Tax, it was product activation that was added. The problem is it didn't work very well and people had problems getting their tax returns out of the software.
Intuit publicly apologized and vowed not to put product activation into future versions of its products, but who knows if they will keep that promise? I'd personally rather not reward them for making my life more difficult, especially as a paying customer.
It installed a program that ran in the background, all the time, using resources even when turbotax wasn't running. (Granted this is the windows version they were talking about on Extremetech last year so whether it happened on the mac as well...)
Turbo Tax all the way. Don't be concerned about not being up to date either, you can set it to automatically check for updates everyday from the web. Best stuff out there.
Comments
I don't understand why its so much more on the mac than on the PC though...
The interface feels "ported" in some spots, but overall I like the program.
I've done taxes as a volunteer for VITA (volunteer income tax assistance) and would say that if you want a second pair of eyes to go over your return (always a good idea and mandatory for the VITA folks), then find out where VITA will be in your neighborhood. This service is totally free. Just realize these people won't do your tax return if your return is too complex (real estate income or mucho equity trading, etc.).
I use H&R Block TaxCut for my taxes. Like any tax program it is a but unwieldy in spots, but I've found it a relatively painless and inexpensive way to do my taxes right.
There was such an uproar intuit took it out of the program for this year.
I bough taxcut last year due to the spyware and promptly exchanged it for turbotax, spyware or no...
I hated taxcut, it sucked plain and simple. I would click on a highlighted term i didn't really understand and the thing would give me to a help file that didn't have any info.
On another note. The question asks what the best tax software is, but is there really anything but turbotax and taxcut?
Intuit publicly apologized and vowed not to put product activation into future versions of its products, but who knows if they will keep that promise? I'd personally rather not reward them for making my life more difficult, especially as a paying customer.
It installed a program that ran in the background, all the time, using resources even when turbotax wasn't running. (Granted this is the windows version they were talking about on Extremetech last year so whether it happened on the mac as well...)