TurboTax Premier Federal + State + eFile 2008 [OLD VERSION]

good deal

TurboTax Premier is very helpful for people with small rentals. The instructions are easy to follow. However it takes several times through to understand the underlying rules and one should use information links frequently. It makes the seemingly impossible possible.

I will not use Turbo Tax anymore if I have to pay an additional $10 for each family members tax return. I have used TurboTax for more than twenty years. I will also give up on using Quicken after more than twenty years using it because of these Intuit changes.

12-23-08 Turbotax 2008 and Intuit received so many complaints and many were switching to TaxCut 2008 that they changed their policy of only one return per CD on December 16, 2008. All you have to do is update and you are fixed for unlimited returns and 5 free e-files. It reminds of the time in 2003 that Intuit copy protected the software so well that no one could get it to load and many had to go buy TaxCut. I prefer TurboTax and have used both. Here is the recent update information that I do not see here on Amazon reviews. [...] Update: Im getting a Preparing Additional Returns screen for $9.95 when I try to start over Updated: 12/16/2008 Article ID: 6651 You might be confused - or alarmed - when you come to the screen shown below. This screen, which reflected the original pricing structure, was removed in an update released on December 16, 2008. TurboTax customers can now e-file up to five federal tax returns, the limit set by the IRS, and prepare and print unlimited returns at no additional cost. To remove this screen, please download the latest update. [...] Happy Holidays!

If you are considering a tax preparation software, may I suggest Turbo Tax? This year, the program is so easy, it almost prepares itself. All you have to do is to have your paperwork ready, and if you dont, when it is time, you can get it prepared. And this year, you have free e-filing. How convenient!

I have used TurboTax Premier for several years and in the beginning was very satisfied with it: Its easy to use and guides you through your taxes with ease. Pop up help is always available and terms you dont understand are explained. Before TurboTax, my spouse always did the taxes. It took him a week of headaches and increasing stress because the IRS instructions are incompressible to us (and we are both college graduates). When hed submit them there were usually mistakes in the calculations, causing more stress and money as well. Our taxes are very complicated because of a wide range of income sources, so I chose TurboTax Premier, and it solved our problems. It handles interest and investment income and expenses with ease. Using that product we had no more mistakes and the work went much faster. It found deductions we never knew about, so we were very satisfied. But it was too good to last. Every year the program got bigger, more improved, more expensive, and more difficult to download. Last year it took 4 hours to download on our dial-up Internet service, so this year I got the CD from Amazon.com thinking all Id have to deal with would be the upgrades Intuit had added after the CD was published. BIG MISTAKE! The first problem came up when I installed TurboTax on the computer and it asked me to register the product. It could not, would not, and absolutely refused to access the Internet via our dial-up system. All I got were error messages saying it could not connect. Instructions indicated that Id have to turn off the accelerator program we use to make dial-up faster. It still wouldnt connect. Instructions said to disable all security and privacy modes and allow cookies. Still wouldnt connect. Instructions said to disable Windows Firewall. Still wouldnt connect. Instructions said if all these measures fail, go to the TurboTax website and download the updates manually. So I tried that. Download was blocked. I gave up. At midnight when Internet traffic is less, I tried again. This time it started downloading the updates. I was informed it would take 20 HOURS! Ridiculous! So I went to bed let it continue downloading and by 10 a.m. the next morning it was complete. It only took 10 hours instead of 20. Ridiculous!! No program should take that long to download. But worse was yet to come. When I try to install the updates I get an error message informing me it cannot extract the archive. Oh great! I was supposed to block the security modes again. So I did, but it will not install the files. So I cannot install the files I spent 10 hours downloading. Now I have to call them and order a CD with the updates. So why cant the vendor sell me a CD with the updates in the first place? I waited until the last half of March to order it. Now we wait until they mail us the updates before we start our taxes. If wed waited until the last minute wed find ourselves up against the April 15 deadline and unable to get them done. After all that trouble, we tried to get our State Tax Form. --Unable to connect of course. So I went to the TurboTax website to download it manually. First try was refused. Second try the next day it was successfully downloaded. It only took an hour. Ridiculous! I will not be using TurboTax next year. It is obviously not intended for dial-up customers. Unless you have broadband, dont even consider using it via the Internet! I may use it as if I have no computer, ordering everything on CD, but more likely I will try Tax Cut instead, because TurboTax is getting too expensive. Sure, its cheaper than paying a CPA, but its just a mass produced computer program; and it doesnt do what it promises. I did not get the things I paid for in TurboTax Premier this year and undoubtedly if I tried to use the e-file application, it would not be able to make a connection, so we will mail a hard copy. We did that last year because they wanted to charge $15 to e-file. Intuit is greedy, and has no interest in serving the average tax-paying citizen who has no fancy hi-speed Internet connection.

Did the job.

Well, just as most of the other folks have pointed out, TurboTax has become very expensive. In addition, it takes a long time to load once the desktop icon is double-clicked and checking for updates seems to take longer than I have patience for. I have canceled the check for updates on at least 2 occasions because I just didnt have the time to wait. If this years pain is still clear in my mind next year, I will have my taxes done by a professional and not use tax software again.

I shopped all over the internet and at the local stored for this version of Turbo Tax and could not find a better price. The item was sent in a very timely matter and met every expectation. THis was an excellent buy and I plan on buying the same version from the seller next year.

This is an excellant product I have used before for my annual tax report and will use next year.