The last few years I've been preparing taxes for myself and my family using various versions of TaxCut on both the Windows and Mac platform. This year, I got a free copy of TurboTax for the PC from purchasing Quicken Deluxe so obviously I went with it.

The deluxe edition includes "more money saving advice," which includes IRS Publications, video advice, tax planners, and IRA and life events planners. All of this is nice, but if you are at all experienced with taxes, you will probably not use any of this. The real tangible benefit is the free state edition.

Installation
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The program comes on a CD-ROM, but none of the state editions are included on the disk. If you buy the deluxe version, you get one free state edition, but you have to buy it from a retailer or Intuit's ecommerce site, then send in a rebate form to get your money back.

Installation of the program is a straightforward, standard Windows installation. I installed it both on Windows 95 running on VirtualPC on a Power Mac, and on a Pentium II notebook computer running Windows 2000. The program ran well on both setups other than the speed difference. My only complaint is that the default path used by the installer is not in the Program Files directory but at the root level. Who does that anymore?

I purchased the California state edition as a download from Intuit's site for $29.95 and installed that easily as well. I have not sent in my rebate yet so cannot report on the results of that.

Operation
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Like most other tax preparation software (actually, I think TurboTax pioneered this method), TurboTax takes you through an interview, asking you about various financial statements and situations to determine what forms you need to fill out and the numbers to insert into the proper places in the forms. I feel TurboTax has the advantage in speed and ease of use over previous years' versions of TaxCut because it seemed to ask you less irrelevant questions. With TaxCut, it seemed like you were continually answering no to questions that are irrelevant to most people, like "Do you qualify for the Argicultural Tax Benefit of 1832?" or some such. TurboTax cleverly groups many of these together and ask you all at once if you qualify for any of them, then skips over them if you don't. In some cases, it will also give you check boxes so you can check off which cases you qualify for.

The layout of the screen is very helpful and uses the space well even at smaller screen resolutions. The interview uses the top third of the screen, and a narrow help bar that displays relevant questions runs along the right side. I was surprised at how well they predicted common questions. On the bottom of the screen, the relevant form is displayed so you can see what is being filled out.

One thing I really liked about TurboTax is how it never lost your place in the interview. If you open up a full screen view of a form to take a closer look, there are clear links to close the form and return to interview that never annoyed me by going to some strange place.

State Taxes
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As I stated before, the state edition (I used California) is a separate purchase and download. After installation, the state portion is integrated very nicely into the same TurboTax program. This is in contrast to the TaxCut state versions (at least of the past couple years), which are completely separate applications that import your federal tax data file. What this means is that with TaxCut, if you do your federal, then import into the State edition, then go back and make changes to your federal, you have to switch back to redo your state again. With TurboTax, the Federal and state taxes are transparently integrated and you can even print them out from the same screen.

Another nice feature is the running total of how much tax you owe or will get refunded that Turbotax keeps in the upper right hand corner. It was cool to see the numbers go up (as it turns out, I had a refund) as you entered various deductions and such.

Printing and Filing
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TurboTax provides a number of nice printing options. One is to print only what you need to file your taxes, another categoy, with subselections, is for the forms plus other worksheets and summaries for your records. You could also print your state and federal taxes in one shot, which is very convenient.

Summary
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Normally, I avoid TurboTax because of the price premium over TaxCut. I'm glad I lucked into a cheap copy this time because TurboTax really is better than its competitors.

Now here's how I got this really good deal. I can't guarantee when supplies will run out but I got it safely:

1. Go to www.directdeals.com or www.9software.com. (I got from the former and have no experience with the latter)

2. Buy the boxless version of Quicken Deluxe Suite. This includes Quicken Deluxe 2001, Quicken Family Lawyer 2001, and a mail-in coupon for TurboTax Deluxe 2000. This should be priced around $17-19, with about $5 shipping.

3. Send in the coupon for TurboTax. I received the CD in about 4 days from Intuit.

4. This package qualifies for a $20 rebate from Intuit, although the rebate form is not included and is not online. Make a copy of your CD/CD sleeve and your receipt and send to Intuit Rebate Center, PO Box 4000, Promotion 467-1033, Monticello, MN 55565-4000. Consider this part a bonus if you get it, since the 3 programs for $22 is already a smoking deal.

Recommended: Yes