I've used TurboTax every year since the early 1900's when it was made by a company called Chipsoft.

It is inconceivable to me that there are people who still prepare their tax returns, particularly long forms, by hand. It is unlikely that I'd use any other means of tax preparation unless my tax needs become extremely complicated, in which case I'd hire a professional. But since I'm not a rock star or a dot.com entrepreneur or a professional athlete, my simple and straightforward income and deduction reporting makes me the perfect candidate for TurboTax.

In reality, all of the tax programs are very similar. Remove the packaging, brand names, and logos, and one would find that the most popular tax preparation software including TurboTax, H&R Block TaxCut, Microsoft TaxSaver (now discontinued), and 2nd Story TaxAct are all functionally similar underneath the skin (or is that GUI interface?).

What separates TurboTax from the rest of the pack is that it is the oldest and most well-known brand, and it has evolved into a well designed product. Because it's a mature product, it's maker, Intuit Company, has removed all the bugs and kinks in the product, and it is a very well crafted and efficient application that does everything it was intended to do - from installation to filing a return.
Quite simply, it's been around the longest, and it does it the best. It is a solid program. Crashes and screen lockups are virtually non-existent.

The key to a preparing any tax return is the collection and preparation of tax data by the taxpayer. Having all necessary documents, receipts, and forms handy and accessible, and all itemized entries totaled, makes the entire process quick and painless. TurboTax also integrates with all leading personal accounting software, including it's sister product, Quicken, and Microsoft Money. Taxcut, on the other hand, integrates with only Microsoft Money. Users of Quicken, who want their financial data to seamlessly flow to the tax application must use TurboTax.

For users who have few income streams, uncomplicated deductions, a small bit of computer literacy, and a general knowledge of taxation, TurboTax is a breeze and almost foolproof. However, self employed persons, especially those with SOHO's, who have a large number and wide variety of deductions may be challenged by the complexities. This is more a comment on the IRS tax system, as opposed to the application. Complicated tax returns usually require professional advice. TurboTax takes care of this by providing fee-based access to tax experts located on www.experts.com - at costs ranging from 75 cents (a bargain)to $4.00 (too expensive) per minute. Like Epinions, each expert has a user-scored reference rating of one to five stars, so there is at least a basis for selecting an advisor. These advisors will audit complete returns for a price.

There are several other perks -

For 2001, TurboTax will automatically retrieve your W-2 wage data from participating employers and investment data from select 1099 forms from participating financial institutions. It reads last year's completed tax returns from TurboTax, TaxCut, TaxSaver.

TurboTax links the user to IRS Publications to the web, as well as a 1,000 page tax library.

But the best part is the cost. I purchased TurboTax Deluxe 2000 for $34.99 with a $10.00 rebate at Costco. It also included a full rebate for TurboTax State, which cost $24.99. Lastly, the program includes a rebate coupon for the cost of e-filing one tax return. So essentially, the complete cost of tax preparation and filing comes up to the grand total of $24.99 after rebates are applied.

That's pretty darn inexpensive.

For me, TurboTax is my preferred method of preparing and filing income taxes. It is a product I cannot do without.


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