TurboTax Home & Business: For your personal & small business income taxesBest Features:- Helps you get every dollar you deserve from your personal and small business taxes
- Extra guidance for self-employment and small business deductions
- Get expert help when you need it, free
- Double-checks your return for deductions and credits and helps you avoid triggering an audit
- Includes 5 Free Federal E-files and one download of a TurboTax State product
DOESN'T RUN ON OLDER MACS - HOW TO KNOW IF YOU CAN USE TURBOTAX FOR MAC By David Nathanson
Special Note to all the Mac Users! Check to see if you can run TurboTax before buying it! You might need a new computer to run TurboTax 2012 this year.
The Requirements are not made clear.
Your Mac needs 2 things or TurboTax will not run. This applies to ALL versions of TurboTax for Mac (tax year 2012). It does not matter if you get the CD or if you buy the download. The H&B version or the regular version. It is still the exact same TWO requirements.
1) Must have OS X 10.6.8 Snow Leopard or higher.
AND
2) Must have an intel Core2 Duo or better. An Intel Core Duo will not work!!! It has got to be the Intel Core 2 Duo or better.
You can find out both of these by pulling your Apple menu to "About this Mac" and it will show you both.
If your Mac is 2010 or newer you are probably ok, and some as old as 2006 may work if they have OS X 10.6.8 or higher and the intel core 2 duo. An intel i5 or i7 chip is ok too. But do check first before buying. I think Intuit was sort of harsh in cutting off a lot of older Macs that are still in daily use running OSX Tiger, Leopard & Snow Leopard. I'm hearing a lot of reports from people who have a Mac running Snow Leopard on a Core Duo and TT won't launch. TurboTax 2011 worked just fine on older Macs.
On to the TurboTax Review:
I've used TurboTax Home And Business annually for years & years. It does a better job than my CPA did when I used to hire one for $400 a go. You'll do better sitting with TurboTax and going through the interview. It will prompt you to dig up some receipts you didn't realize were important. So you'll have more write offs, and do a better job with your taxes.
Over time, you will get to know what is important to keep track of during the year, and that will turn out to be another reason that your taxes will be done better... More accurate and cheaper for you. I love how TT can import the tax file from last year which gives you a huge head start. Huge.
The Home and Business version includes Schedule C, and all the tax forms I've ever needed to run a business. Your choice of 1 state is included. You can eFile, but why make it easier for the IRS to audit you? Considering the possible tax savings possible by doing it right & taking advantage of the tax rules, the H&B version is worth the extra bucks over the regular TT personal version. The H&B version can do everything the regular TurboTax can do, so you don't give up anything, just gain the Business extras.
Pro Tip: Print your taxes on paper & mail it in rather than e-file. I hear that this make it less likely your data will be searchable by the IRS, and therefore less likely to be selected for random audit. Can't say for sure, and the facts may change, but that's what I hear.
Recommended. Works. Useful & Easy. As easy as taxes can be anyway.
I personally advise *against* subscribing to Intuit's annual plan. Buying TurboTax via Amazon is cheaper & better. Less trouble, and you get to see the computer requirements in advance.
Buying the software *download* is cheaper because they do not charge sales tax on the download. Amazon can charge sales tax on the CD. However, the CD includes both Mac & PC versions. The Download does not. This TurboTax Home & Business includes a license to use for up to 5 different Tax returns for family members, and you can install on multiple computers if you want.
The ONLY 2 places that I know are authorized to sell TurboTax as a digital download are Intuit & Amazon.com If you see TT for sale elsewhere as a download - it is a pirated copy. Never pay pirates, you don't know what else they will do with your credit card & billing info, and you don't know if they altered the software to steal your data, and you don't want to enrich no-account pirates. It is better to pay the software manufacturer for their work, and better for you not to get ripped off. Ok?
Bottom line:
TurboTax Home & Business has been my go-to tax prep software for many years, and if they continue to do a good job with it, I will continue to buy it for years to come.Never ever TurboTax again By Baris S.
I had used TurboTax for over 3 years to do my taxes and did not have any problems. One day, I received mail from IRS saying that we owe around $3K from a tax return that I filed 2 years ago which was through TurboTax. I went back to my files, since I filed it through TurboTax, I was able to find both the online and the print-out copies, and faxed the IRS to prove to them that I filled it out correctly, without missing information on my end. After having a long conversation with the IRS we found out where the problem was. The software that TurboTax uses had a glitch and did not calculate my self employment tax correctly which ended up giving me wrong information about the money that I had to pay. Now we all know that TurboTax has a claimed guarantee that ""If you pay an IRS or state penalty or interest because of a TurboTax calculation error, TurboTax will pay you the penalty and interest."" However TurboTax doesn't handle your problems and has you contact Intuit to file a claim on your case and the only way to contact them is via e-mail. They do not have a phone number that they can be reached at. Over the 4 months since, here is what happened:
1) My wife and I both called TurboTax hundreds of times, probably 120 - 130 times. Each conversation was about 40-45 minutes. Every single time you have to explain to each representative what happened. It is very frustrating because the case number that they give you after each call doesn't mean anything to them. When you reference your case number, they say "Oh I am sorry but I don't have any information in my system. Can you please tell me what are you calling for?".
2) We sent lots of emails to Intuit but they responded to only one of them saying that our case was closed and they did not give any reason in the email.
3)The IRS was the most helpful during this process and told us that there are lots of people just like us who have to pay because of an error that on TurboTax's part.
My personal advice to everyone is NEVER use TurboTax. They are great to deal with until you purchase their product.TurboTax Home & Business 2012 Fed + E-File + State By R. Rheault
Began my return, although I don't have all of the documents yet, to get a rough idea as to where I am. After I "finished" a draft of the Federal Return (including a Schedule C) I was surprised that Intuit wants $36.99 ($39.99?) to allow me to do my State return. Based on the item description, I thought the State return was included & I'd just have to pay a small fee for the E-filing. In fairness, when you look at the Intuit/TurboTax site, they disclose the extra State filing fee. The Best-Selling TurboTax Home and Business Fed + E-File + State 2012 then to sell out very fast, if this is a must have product, be sure to order now to avoid disappointment.
