Experience with TurboTax Online?

Scott, I used Turbo-Tax last year, ON-LINE, got a speedy refund, and no hassle. Cal Lester CLU

I've been in the high-tech field for 20+ years and started with PCs with a Commodore-64, so you think I would be a big advocate of this "quicker, easier" method. However, I too, am very wary of doing this. Vanguard has been offering TT online free for a couple of years, but I still use a PC based tax program. I guess it's all of the stories you hear of security breaches and employee errors that expose personal information.

With respect to tax software, I've used TaxCut for years because that's what I started with, it's cheaper, and serves my purposes completely. (At the time I started using it I owned rental property and it was more complete in that regard than TurboTax.)

With respect to doing it online, only you can decide if you're comfortable with that. If not, consider purchasing tax software at a discount store. It's pretty cheap. Lots of loss leader sales are available at Office Depot, Office Max, and the like.

Please fill me in. I have had State Farm insurance for over 20 years, and I haven't heard about the a deal with Turbo Tax. I have used Turbo Tax on-line version the past 2 years, and found that it works very well. It even did a schedule C without any issues.

-john-

Here is the link:

I started using TurboTax online two years ago when it was offered free from the IRS website. They still let me use it free, so I assume it is available directly from them? Maybe not. In any case, the first year I used it, I posted here about two bugs (and possibly a third) that I found in their software. I reported those bugs to Intuit. One of them had not been fixed last year - TurboTax online will not allow you to amortize the cost of refinancing a rental property. As a result, after completing the form online, I printed it out the last two years, filled in the one line by hand, and mailed it in. Of course, this means I didn't pay the efile fee either...

As to uploading personal info, that's always a real concern. For me, I get some benefit for my risk, making it worth it to me. Besides, your info is available in many places already.

YMMV,

-Will

I only know of one place where there is my name, DOB, address, SS#, income, plus every bank and stock account that made or lost money last year. And it isnt my records (I wish I was so organized).

I could find some of these in the on-disk file of a tax program I use with a simple data-mining program, so I've wondered about net security too. I keep fake numbers on my local computer version, except for the five minutes I am printing the return.

Cal enthused:

I've used Turbo Tax in both the online and offline versions. I like the online better because I know it's always current and because it allows me to store backup copies of my returns (and worksheets) on their server.

My suggestion is to not use turbo tax online. I have just gone through an annoying day of phone calls because I found a bug in their software where they were rounding share prices in a stock option sale to the nearest dollar. Well, you don't do that with share prices as it screws up the calculation. Unfortunately I noticed it after the e-file was accepted and now I have to file an amended return. Turbo Tax said they were working on the bug and it was a known issue but they do nothing to inform users that are possibly affected. Total BS. They also said that everything was fine and they told the IRS so I could just let it go. Wrong! Morons. The IRS requires an amended return, I contacted them myself. Turbo Tax is a joke of an organization. Bad software design (only affected online, not retail), they offered no assistance in resolving the matter and they don't even inform you that your return may be screwed up. Stick with paper, a pencil and a calculator. The only positive I can say is finally after 4 calls I got a refund for the money I spent on their bad software.