TurboTax – Previously QuickTax
TurboTax is Canada’s most popular tax software and for good reason! TurboTax has absolutely all the bells and whistles that you could want in a tax program and in our opinion is the easiest to use. In fact, this year they have introduced two new fantastic features: Audit Risk Alert and 24/7 Free Live Support! Remember that TurboTax used to be QuickTax but was renamed to align with their US brand.
TurboTax is Canada’s #1 best selling tax software from Intuit, the makers of Mint.com and QuickBooks. With TurboTax they have developed a product that is EASY to use, FAST, ACCURATE and comes with a GUARANTEE! If you want to simply try TurboTax and see if it’s right for you, you can try TurboTax for free!
Price:
Online and/or Mac: $17.99 – Standard, $32.99 – Premier, $44.99 – Home & Business
Windows (PC): $19.99 – Basic, $39.99 – Standard, $69.99 – Premier, $99.99 – Home & Business
Click here for a 10% discount off of TurboTax 2012 (for 2011 Tax year).
Operating System: Windows and Online. TurboTax for Mac must be completed through the online version.
Usability: By far the most user friendly tax program on the market. TurboTax has a few different features to make it so easy. First is the step-by-step guide to show you exactly where you are in the the tax-filing process. As you can see in the images below you simply work your way through the steps from information to deductions and more. This is nice as you can jump forward and backwards from this screen and you know which section you are heading to/from.
The next usability feature is the interview style format which asks you a set of a few questions at a time. This is nice as you don’t feel overwhelmed from a ton of questions. After each question a subsection of more questions are often asked (ie: Did you work last year? Yes –> Was it T4, T4a, etc..). Then once you need to fill out tax form boxes they are presented in an easy-to read and fill in format.
Finally, when a section may be considered tricky (ie: medical expenses) there is a “guide me” button. Once that is clicked it provides more information on what is considered eligible and not. This is a nice feature as you can possibly claim expenses that you didn’t think were or know were covered with a different program!
Support: TurboTax has really increased their service in this department for 2012. They now provide LIVE 24/7 FREE Tax Support and Advice! This is a huge leap as this used to cost at least $15. Available from February 6th 2012 – May 4th 2012.
Bells and Whistles: Yes! TurboTax has absolutely all the bells and whistles including RRSP optimizer, Pension Income Splitter and Audit Risk Alert.
Overall: Overall, Turbo Tax has the most features and the easiest interface to use. In fact, some people say filing your taxes is actually easy with Turbo Tax.
Personal Review: Personally, this is the tax program that I use for my taxes. It does cost a bit more than the other programs but having a very simple to use system is worth the money to me. Although, now that I know how to use basically all the Canadian Tax Software Programs I find the ability to find deductions and bells and whistles the feature that brings me back each year. To me it’s worth knowing that I have found all the deductions to reduce my taxes accordingly.
Advantages:
- Easy to use walk-through interface
- Free 24/7 Live Support
- File Up To 8 returns per software package (Windows)
- RRSP Optimizer - A great tool that helps you calculate the contribution you should put in your RRSP to get the maximum refund. Allows you to play around with how much you can afford and what sort of return you’d get. This feature alone is worth buying the software if you are investing a bit extra into RRSP’s.
- Pension income splitter – A feature that helps you split pension-income to maximize your return.
- A to Z deduction Checklist – Over 400+ possible deductions are checked to maximize your refund.
- Guarantee – TurboTax also has a guarantee that you’ll get the maximum return or your money back. This shows their confidence in the software. Plus, if you pay a penalty or interest because of a TurboTax calculation error, they will reimburse you the penalty and interest!
Disadvantages:
- No Visible Tax Form – You can’t see the tax form as you enter all the information (although, it’s probably a setting that I’m just missing)
- Cost: TurboTax is slightly more expensive than other tax software. However, for all the features, ease-of-use and making the tax filing process simple it might be worth it.
Pricing:
Online and/or Mac:
- $17.99 – Standard
- $32.99 – Premier
- $44.99 – Home & Business
Windows (PC):
- $19.99 – Basic
- $39.99 – Standard
- $69.99 – Premier
- $99.99 – Home & Business
Click here for a 10% discount off of TurboTax 2012 (for 2011 Tax year).
Overall, TurboTax has the most features, easiest to use system and the best ability to find your deductions/credits. TurboTax is a piece of software that makes filing your taxes easier and quicker which is really what we all want!
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Comments
8 Responses to “TurboTax – Previously QuickTax”
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TurboTax is good but each year I find some glitch that frustrates me. This year the online Home & Business version does not navigate to the deduction page for transit passes even though I checked this off in the personal info area. I have spent about an hour on the telephone with their technical help and despite switching browsers they had no solution and have logged a complaint report and will get to me sometime(!). One proposed solution was to start a new tax form instance! Not a great solution when I was 90% through, including self-employment, medical, etc.! If they solve the problem I may stick with them. If not, I’ll need to look elsewhere as each year I encounter an issue that prolongs the time needed to complete and file.
Hi Dorte,
Thanks for telling us about your problem. I went through the program again with my tax information and didn’t have the same problem! I was hoping to find it so that I too could put a complaint report through to help speed up the solution… but alas, I had no problems!
Sorry I couldn’t be more help!
Jeff
This was my first year using turbotax… my father filed with his pc version no problem and brought it to me but realized he had put it on 2 computers already so we couldn’t activate it. Customer service suggested we pay another $40 for a new activation code…. we did NOT. Instead, went the smart route and went online for $17.99. I finished my return…. made my payment…. got to the end and got an “interview error” while trying to netfile. I tried again, same. I closed my browser (EI) and opened a new one (firefox), same error. I called their customer service and after waiting the 15 minutes, was put on hold for almost another 10 minutes after going through and clicking continue over and over again and telling them that I already tried the other browser…. after all this waiting their solution was to create a new account, that MIGHT help…. um… and also cost me a 2nd 17.99?! I told them this was ridiculous and they realized they would be charging me. Final verdict, “we have no answer”. It is a well known problem and they have no estimated fix time. I am NOT impressed. I wasted my whole saturday evening while trying to speed up taxes… Their customer service is terribly unhelpful. I still haven’t been able to file it and they offered me no reassurance. Reading comments online, they refuse to provide refunds at this point either.
Anyone else have this problem and have a helpful tip?
Megan
Hi,
)
I got turbo tax and H&r Block (Free as RBC customer.
I’m filing tax first time.
This is my finding that Turbo tax is really well built software and is very easy to fill.
H&R is also good but not as turbo tax.
But one thing is that both softwares are showing different returns, almost the difference of $500. Turbo tax is showing highest returns. I tried UFile and StudioTax (Free one) too. All three are showing same returns but only turbo tax is showing $500 more. I don’t know which one to believe.
Hi Megan, That sucks that you had a bad experience. I would call them back and ask to speak to a manager. Tell them about the situation and that you’d like a full refund…. A large company such as TurboTax who prides themselves on good customer service will hopefully help.
Please report back to us if you do find anything or have more to share.
Jeff
Hi D-V,
Thanks for the comment. My personal feeling is to go with the TT return as long as you were honest with all the different programs. Also, I’ve heard of this happening before and it was attributed to the fact that TurboTax is easier to use thus finding your deductions is easier than other software.
Jeff – note: I’m not a tax professional.
Hi,
We (with uncle is a lot more than me) found two bugs in Turbo tax. So now I am using H&R.
1) My wife was having previous year tution fees, So I forwarded to it my returns. I put $5000 (max that can be transfered to spouse). But actual amount available was $4200. But turbo Tax didn’t realize that and was calculating wrong.
2) Same with my spouse Transit Pass. As I can claim my spouse Transit pass H&R automatically did that but turbo tax again failed to do so, thus giving less returns in the end.
My uncle also dumped TT and bought UFile.
TurboTax forgets to save your data sometimes. Igot screwed on this last yaer and had to pay more taxes than proper due to missed slips entered. I thought that I made a mistake even though I had double checked all my slips and entries.
This year I caught the problem and TurboTax does NOT save over tp of the existing data even though it asks if you want to overwrite the existing file and you acknowledge. This bug does not always happen. I have run many test cases and cannot determine why it happens sometimes and not others.
I have used TurboTax for about 10 years now and if there was an alternative I would dump this junk forever. I previously complaine to Intuit about the line numbers nt being in column where labelled and hidden in the text descriptors for only certain entry boxes. This company is too lazy to spend a nickle to improve their software. It will be another brand next year or do it by hand. It takes less time anyway.
Now I have to go back and resubmit last years over taxation since I have discovered where the bugs are.
Recommended? ABSOLUTELY NOT!!
Don’t trust TurboTax to save your file after adding more entries. Check the file date and time before exiting the programme, every time.