Looking for a better option than Turbo Tax

[mesquite77]

Last year was my first year out of public accounting and the first time I'd used Turbo Tax since about 1998.

I was shocked out at how cumbersome the 2009 program. And while the program calculated our dependent care deduction correctly, the form with the details didn't foot. I ended up having to override the program.

This year, Form 4562 (depreciation) won't be available until 2/10/11 for the partnership return. The program won't even let me enter the new residential rental property detail. They blame changes from the IRS, but the form is available on the IRS website and the properties will be depreciated over 27.5 yrs, same as years past. Why not let me enter the info and give me a preliminary form?

So back the title of this thread, any suggestions for personal use? Thanks!

[dragonfly7]

I have used TaxAct online for the past couple of years. It walked me through everything step-by-step, which was especially useful when DH was still factoring in personal business expenses and we had various education-related deductions/credits, and I didn't yet understand how they worked.

[mwcpa]

As a professional I used Lacerte through 2009 filings, this year I am using ProSystem... I got tired of the all ads Intuit put into Lacerte.....

Congress made changes to the tax law in mid December and as a result many forms are not available until Feb 14. In addition, the IRS must approve forms used by software developers before you can use them, it is possible that IRS has not yet approved the form in question from Turbo Tax.

[taxref]

If you're like me, a problem with consumer versions of tax software is that they are designed for non-accountants. Consequently, the data entry tries (often without success) to guide people who know little about taxes into making correct entries.

For those of us who are famliar with taxation, we generally know what we want to enter, where, and why. Battling through the questions and entry screens is frustrating.

[TheOtherMe]

Since I now retired, I do use Turbo Tax. However, I don't let the program "Guide Me". I know where things go and I can get them there myself. My tax return is not complicated--your basic 1040 with a Schedule A and a Schedule C for work I perform for a church. I know where those things go and can get to the correct answer.

And, yes, I know the church should be treating me as an employee and have told them that. However, they say they don't have the money to pay their half of the Social Security and FICA and since I do the books, I know they are telling me the truth.

I am making them issue 1099s to all the people who performed services there and made over $600, which came as a shock to some of those people. Suppose they haven't been reporting that income?

[cpadvisor]

Jan 21, 2011 20:31:12 GMT -5 taxref said:

If you're like me, a problem with consumer versions of tax software is that they are designed for non-accountants. Consequently, the data entry tries (often without success) to guide people who know little about taxes into making correct entries.

For those of us who are famliar with taxation, we generally know what we want to enter, where, and why. Battling through the questions and entry screens is frustrating.

I would agree with this. I help a couple friends and it pisses me off that you can just put the information where you want it... too used to Lacerte and ProSystem I guess...

[commentator]

It is possible with TurboTax (and I expect other non-professional tax software) to avoid the Q&A and go directly to the forms where info can be entered directly.

In TurboTax, once the file is open, go to the menu bar and select View-Forms.

As always, RTFM.

[ilea]

MWCPA-

What kind of ads were you getting with LaCerte? This will be our 10th season using it and we don't have ad issues. Got some email early on about their DMS but I just delete those. I will actually be using LaCerte for the first time this year for 1041's.

[mwcpa]

I had used Lacerte since 1996.....and in the last 2-3 years I have seen "bad" changes from them.... less real person support.....

I was getting this pop up about buying their tax research product.... almost everytime I logged in to the software..... a real pain in the neck.....everytime I did an update I was getting a download for their auto flow product....and everytime I had to delete it....it was not a bad program, but they seem to be more focused on their retail product these days (the people who do Turbo Tax also do Lacerte, Intuit.... and QuickBooks)....

I also lost confidence in their support staff.... I used their DMS product, one of their software created files was not working properly and as a result I could not open the product.... I sent the file and they said... oh well, we cannot fix it.... all of my data,15+GB of pdfs and excel and word, etc was in a format I could not read.... a bunch of files that were not identifiable without opening them (by guessing to what the extension was... all files were identified as .000.... ).... I have spent way to much time and $$ to get the files properly named and usable.... (this issue was the result of a major system failure of my network... all of my files were recovered from the hard drive, but this software did not work correctly and the way they tag files provided the data back up as useless)

So far CCH, while different, seems to be working well... I have also found that CCH "document" product interface with it's tax product is much easier to work with than the Lacerte "DMS" (for me)....(I am trying to be as green as possible... operating in NYC storage of docuemnts in paper in an office is expenses...

[mesquite77]

At the firm, we had Prosystem, so the move from that to TT has been an adjustment. Prosystem was working on moving from interview screens to organizer screens on the 1040 program when I left, so it was changing too.

Luckily I only have 1 partnership return, my return and a handful of easy 1040s to prepare. My concern is as my days in public look smaller in my rear view mirror, my tax knowledge ages and I'll need more help from the program rather than the other way around.

[dogmom]

I've used Turbotax personally for many years. I don't like the new format, and it certainly doesn't provide the links that they had previously...Not likely next year that I'll use them. I keep getting suggestions to "upgrade" to the next higher version for only $X. I'm just waiting on a brokerage download that should be available in the next week or so. Don't know about anyone else, but pretty soon it's going to be just two lines, Line 1, how much did you earn? Line 2: enter total from line one and send it in.