TurboTax User Review

TurboTax is a great idea at tax time, especially if your taxes are not straight forward or if you aren't very good at following the convoluted instructions that the Internal Revenue Service gives you for completing them. If you need to claim or itemize deductions, TurboTax can save you a lot of money. You could wind up paying many times more to have someone do your taxes at a firm, but you can do personal income taxes yourself online for $29.95. If you were to go to a brick and mortar store to have someone do them, you could easily pay five times that, or maybe even more. And if your taxes are simple and straight forward you can even do them for free on TurboTax's website!

Last year we earned income that was reported to the IRS on a 1099 form, which means no taxes were paid in advance on it. I had no idea that there were other forms to be filled out, including a Schedule C and some other form, since if you earn money as a contractor, you are considered by the government to have your own business, even if you're really not in business for yourself. I would have never known that those forms needed to be filled out if it weren't for TurboTax. I could have wound up in a lot of trouble with the IRS for failing to complete my taxes accurately.

TurboTax is very simple to use. You just need all your paperwork, and all the forms that your employer(s) send you, and you just go through step-by-step and answer all of the questions that it asks you. It's very easy and straightforward, but most importantly, it's in plain English so that anyone can understand it. Another great thing about it is that you can start doing your taxes and save them in their database without paying. You only pay when you're ready to submit, so if you want to try their site out, you don't have to commit to using them without seeing what it's like first. TurboTax is also very convenient as it requires no software to purchase (although you can buy the software at a store if you so desire), nor does it require any downloads.

One of the best things about TurboTax is that they store your return online, in their database, so you don't have to worry about keeping up with last year's return. When you log back in the next year, it remembers your return from the year before. TurboTax is a fantastic product, especially considering how difficult and expensive it can be to do your taxes. TurboTax makes it easy, cheap and quick. I will definitely use them every year!