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 - TurboTax still rules!Now granted, not everyone is like me and can file a 1040A, but TurboTax's ability to fill out the current tax form (2007) using the old information from last year's tax form (2006) is as close to automation as one can get. It only took a couple of hours for me to complete both my Federal and State returns. For some that might not be fast, but within those two hours, I was on my way to the post office to drop off my returns. I got my refunds early last month and I didn't e-file. Rating: - Tony's Music BoxThe product delivered by Tony's Music box (Turbo Tax Premier 2007) arrived very quickly, was exactly the product listed on Amazon.com and worked perfectly. No trouble at all! I would definitely buy through Tony's Music Box again. Rating:  - Very buggy this yearI've used Turbotax for years with excellent results. This is the first year I had a problem and it was a huge one. When it first calculated my tax, it added my AMT to what would have been my regular tax rather than just using the AMT. I wound up owing $27K rather than $3K. I reran the calculations and the second time it got the actual tax I owed correct. It was close to being a nightmare and the time between thinking I unexpectedly owed $27K and the time I reran the software was wrought with anxiety. Next year I try TaxCut. Rating: - crap-wareIf your tax return is extremely simple this software may not be the worst choice. However, if you tax return is complex I highly recommend paying someone to do it right. I have learned several painful lessons using this software. I tried to open last year's return using the current version of TurboTax, thinking that it would be backward compatible. Wrong. If I try to open a .tax file created by last year's TurboTax, it tells me that it was not created with the current version of TurboTax and won't open it. I then tried installing last year's version of TurboTax, thinking how smart I was to save last year's software disks. It installed fine, but when I ran it it told me that it had expired. Huh? I paid good money for this software; nowhere on the product does it say it is functional only that year. How am I supposed to look at my old tax return documents in TurboTax if it won't run the old version and won't load the previous year's document in the latest version of TurboTax?? I tried their technical support site. Being April 14th, they are busy, of course, however it said I could do an on-line chat with a customer service associate if I waited an hour, so I figured I'd eat dinner and just wait for them to come on-line. After a few minutes, I got a "network error" and my connection to their server was lost. That means that they are selling many more versions of the software than their tech support servers can support, and when their servers get overloaded, then just drop you. Nice. It offers you the ability to import banking and investment information from a short list of supported providers. Last year I worked for Robert Half, Inc. a huge nationwide contracting company, and Robert Half wasn't on the list! A giant company like Robert Half not on the list? bah humbug! It offers you the ability to import your W-2 from your employer if your employer happens to be supported. There is no list of supported employers, so you click the button and see what happens. Well, over the years using TurboTax I've never had it find my employer and I've worked for a number of different companies - large and small. Not a very useful feature. When you get to the end, it asks you if you want to file a state return. I live in Texas and there is no state income tax. So I told it I didn't want state income tax. It offered several times. How many times do I have to tell it I do not want buy state income tax too? Then in at least two places, they offer you this or that tax service that they sell. If you answer "no" to the first one, then the second one comes up and asks it you want to buy some other damn service. If I want your other damn services, I'll go to your web site and buy them! Let me do my taxes and get done with it. It's painful enough as it is without TurboTax messing with you. One final complaint: frequently pages have links on them telling you you can get more information on this form by clicking on the link. Rather than taking you to a web site that contains information about filling out that form, the link takes you to page in TurboTax that says to get more info, go to the IRS web site! Why don't they link to the appropriate IRS documentation for the form you're on. Just telling you to go visit the IRS web site is NOT helpful. I highly recommend NOT buying this software!! Rating: - Turbotax--what happened?I've used Turbotax for years, but this version has a flaw in it. Don't use Turbotax if you have ANY complexity to your return whatsoever. The system is NOT intuitive, and if there is an error, you get stuck in the same loop, going over it over and over and over and over again without any insight as to what the issue is.
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