Intuit TurboTax Premier 2005 user reviews (Mac & PC)

Pros Comprehensive, can make a difficult return easy

Cons Can create errors in filing, not responsive to problems.

Summary I have used TurboTax for more than ten years, considering it simple, accurate and quick. When I was audited by IRS I knew that there must be a mistake, but I went over all the TurboTax questions to verify my own accuracy in my answers, especially pertaining to rental income. The IRS auditor made it a point to check my form versus the answers to the TurboTax interview and told me that the form was just plain filled out wrong, thus a mistake of about four thousand dollars plus a sizeable interest penalty. Of course I contacted TurboTax about the matter but received no real response, and when my form came out the same in the following year on TurboTax I decided to lie on the program's interview so as to make the form come out correct. Last year when it was still incorrect unless I lied I decided to try TaxCut. This year everything seems to be coming out right.

Pros Does the job

Cons Bloated, expensive software

Summary It used to be that TurboTax was THE tax preparation software to get. It was lean and mean; I used it for years. But Intuit has gotten fat and happy with this product and has loaded it with unessential feastures and priced it ridiculously high. There are alternatives that are just as good, if not better. I use TaxCut now, which sells for a significantly lower price.

I doubt that most people use all of the features; they just want to do their taxes.

Pros All-inclusive (Premier) version continues to excel as the predominant tax software preparation.

Cons Haven't found any, as yet... 'cept maybe the retail pricing (which remains a bargain in comparison to professional service fees!)...

Summary Available on eBay for as little as $25 shipped (full NIB sealed, boxed version), this program continues to simplify the nightmare of tax-time; I've used Intuit's software (formerly MacInTax) for 10-to-12 years now, and it just keeps getting better... especially now that a single shipped version (combination MAC/PC) levels the "paying" field!

Pros Not too many

Cons not very intuitive (from a company called Intuit??)

Summary I can't BELIEVE that the editors gave this an 8 rating - I don't think they used it for real world problems. We've used this software for years, and never had any real problems. Periodic glitches, but that's it. This year, major headaches. We own a rental property and had a software consulting business, and we couldn't get the standard software to "interview us" - all this software wants you to do is upgrade (which we did for $30). We could have downloaded a form to do the rental info, but it would have required an MBA and a CPA to figure out. We're very disappointed, and will be using TaxCut next year.