Turbo tax for businesses? Anyone ever used it? I have not only adult work to claim but some other contract work from my vanilla job this year. I want to take advantage of all the tax write offs. How easy is it to use?


Turbo tax for businesses? Anyone ever used it? I have not only adult work to claim but some other contract work from my vanilla job this year. I want to take advantage of all the tax write offs. How easy is it to use?





I have used Turbo Tax for Home and Business ... which is the version which includes Schedule C 'profit or loss from a business' which independent contractor businesses require ... for about 10 years now.
Each annual Turbo Tax update has been more user-friendly, less 'quirky', and more 'automated' ( i.e. automatic transfers of employee income info, investment info etc. ) than the last. I also like the fact that Turbo Tax allows for 'manual overrides' of automatic calculations ( as long as the over-ride data is still 'legal' ), which I find particularly valuable in regard to 'tweaking' estimated taxes or applying portions of last year's tax refund to next year's tax liability. Turbo Tax also maintains online tax calculation capability for previous years tax returns, which can be EXTREMELY handy if you are audited and need to show an IRS auditor details of previous years' taxes which you didn't print out.
While there are some less expensive tax prep programs out there which can handle Schedule C, IMHO Turbo Tax is worth a few extra bucks ( which can of course be written off as a tax deduction ).
Last edited by Melonie; 09-08-2012 at 04:53 PM.

Melanie is spot on. I also have used TurboTax for about 10 years. It was always easy and gets easier every year. I highly recommend it. For me, it is much easier than taking everything to an accountant or tax pro and explaining my complicated business dealings to them.
slcdon




I thought the same thing, then had my long-term tax preparer look over my return, ask me a number of questions, and 'find me more refund'. A good tax expert is better than a computer program, but I agree there is a 'learning curve' to find the right one and get them up to speed. So as a chronic do-it-yourselfer, I'm sold on my gal!





No question this is true. But the real 'added value' provided by a ( human ) tax expert is advice regarding the best possible structure for your business activities, business expenses, investments etc. to minimize the tax consequences. You're not going to get that sort of expert advice from H & R Block or Jackson Hewitt - they simply fill in the blanks and perform tax calculations in exactly the same manner as any tax prep program would.A good tax expert is better than a computer program
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