How does Turbotax compare with CPAs?

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AmadeusM

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It seems to me that every year my CPA makes some mistakes that I need to catch. Considering that I don't know much about this perverse field, I am probably missing most of them.

Can the ordinary average Joe run the Turbotax efficiently?

Thanks.
 
I used it this year as well as last and everything went smoothly. I'm an idiot when it comes to taxes but I was able to easily understand and complete it. My refund just got posted to my bank account yesterday. :D :thumbup:
 
My wife used the TurboTax (online version) this year to do our taxes and loved it. It came highly recommended from a coworker of hers. She'd used the H&R Block one last year (TaxCut), and she said that TurboTax was MUCH easier to use and understand.
 
I've used it since the '98 tax year and trust it. The program interviews you and prompts you to plug in your numbers. The interview allows the program to select the forms appropriate to your income/deduction situation. If your taxes are at all complex, I do recommend looking at appropriate IRS intructions. I've had to research some new areas just to be sure, before I submitted my taxes, but have found that Turbotax figured things correctly if I put the correct figures in.
 
Federal tax forms are not that complicated. For most people, you just leave most lines blank. There's a line for "Profit or Loss from Farming (attach Schedule F)." If you do farm, that could be tricky. But I don't, so that line gets a big zero and we move on. "Alimony received." Well, I didn't receive any, so that line gets a big zero. Etc. Capital gains used to be very tricky. You had to keep track of your basis on every share you owned, etc. It was enough to make your head explode. But the IRS dramatically simplified the form years ago and most investment firms now have their 1099s harmonized with schedule D to the point where they basically tell you, "Write this number on line 1 column C." They've taken the complexity out of capital gains. The IRS has tens of thousands of pages of publications to help you and most of them are written so as to be approachable by the rank amateur. Bottom line: before you spend a lot of money on a CPA or software, try flying solo.

Oh, and don't be afraid to file the ominous "long" form and to itemize your deductions. The "long" form becomes a lot shorter when you fill in all the obvious zeros. And itemizing is really very easy too. And it doesn't take a whole lot of deductions to get over the standard deduction and save yourself money.
 
I am a CPA and I use Tax Cut for my personal taxes. :D TurboTax is fine too. Unless you have a complicated tax situation, you should be able to do your taxes in 1 to 2 hours tops with either package.

Razz
 
The only time I have found Turbo Tax wanting was for 2004 when I had a couple of complicated situations involving my daughter's insurance settlement from a hit-and-run and the subsequent establishment of a trust fund for her.
For most situations Turbo Tax has been great for me. I have used it for years.
 
We've used an accountant for years. For the last two years, TurboTax has replaced him. We're getting results in the same "neighborhood" or a bit better than what he did for us. But in the process of doing our taxes ourselves, TurboTax led us to several deductions our accountant missed. Because of this, and the results of our returns, I'm sold on this program.
 
I'm a CPA as well and I work in private industry for a corporation. I use TurboTax for my personal returns and it works very well and is pretty simple to use.
I recommend it.

A lot of CPA firms will also prepare their client's tax returns utilizing very expensive computerized software packages, kind of similar to turbo tax.
 
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